Chuck & Sarah vs the Email
by MyNameIsJeffNImLost
Summary: Chuck received a life-changing surprise on his birthday. But what if he knew it was coming? This AU is set during the events of the first episode.
1. We Need to Talk

_Posted October 26, 2019_

A/N: At the end of the last story, I said I planned to go off and read. I literally read two chapters of a 2011 story that wasn't on my list and a couple of new chapter posts. Before that, I had come up with the idea for the start of this story when I was still working on the last one, and it demanded to get out. It was originally a one or two-shot idea. Then, I thought past the original end and decided the story needed three, or maybe two additional chapters. That grew to four. This story further grew to seven chapters total.

Another season 1 AU? Yep. This one is just for the pilot episode. I hope you enjoy "Chuck & Sarah vs the Email."

Disclaimer: Nobody else owns anything here, so why would I?

Disclaimer 2: No beta. Why would I sucker/obligate/subject anyone into reading this when they didn't want to? However, if you PM me corrections, I'll fix them.

* * *

_**September 19, 2007**_

"Stop the presses! "Who is _that_?"

The Nerd Herd supervisor continued looking down where he stood at the Buy More computer support desk, flipping through a folder while he waited on hold.

"Vicki Vale," the bearded man in a green Polo said in amazement.

Without looking to the front of the store where his friend was looking, the tall, curly head man started a chant, "Vicky Vale, Vick Va-Vicky Vale, Vickity-vickity Vicki Vale, Vick Va-Vicky Vale." He looked up, and the phone slipped from between his ear and his shoulder. He wasn't expecting to see a woman _more_ attractive than Vicki Vale standing at the Nerd Herd station, there to talk to him.

"I hope I'm not interrupting," she spoke.

"No, not at all," he said, trying to make his voice sound casual—more mature than the little performance that he had just given. "Uh, that's from _Batman_."

"Because that makes it better," the woman said with a teasing smile.

He managed to laugh a little but his words had left him. He was expecting to have a visitor, but not the beauty in front of him.

"Hey. Uh. Hi. I'm Morgan," his friend said. "And this is Chuck."

"Wow, I didn't think people still named their kids Chuck, or Morgan, for that matter."

"My parents are sadists," Chuck said, "and carnival freaks found him in a dumpster."

"But they raised me as one of their own," Morgan added.

"How can I help. you—?" Chuck asked.

"Sarah," she finished. "I'm here about this." She put a flip phone onto the counter between them. It was open with an exposed battery.

"Oh, yeah, the IntelliCell," Chuck said in recognition. "Yeah. Absolutely. This model has a little screw that pops loose right in the back here." He picked up the phone and used a precision screwdriver from his front packet. Holding the battery cover in his mouth, he said, "You just go ahead and give it a couple of quick turns and… Good as new." He closed the reassembled phone. "No problem."

Sarah took the phone, impressed. "Wow, you geeks are good."

"Nerds, I'd say nerds probably... Yeah, you know, 'Nerd Herd.'"

That morning Chuck just hoped he could pull it off, but the day was turning out better than Chuck had expected. Unfortunately, they were interrupted when a desperate man rushed up to the counter with his young daughter in a ballerina outfit.

"Excuse me. Excuse me. I have an emergency," he said, almost out of breath. Chuck needed to talk some more with this woman. He assumed she was there because of what he was expecting later in the day. Why else would someone like that want to talk to him? However, he supposed that he should deal with the customer, first. Chuck needed to talk to her without Morgan around and find out why she came, instead of the last man he wanted to see. The man he was expecting.

The man who had come to the Nerd Herd station, the one with the embarrassed daughter, held up a camcorder and said, "I don't know what I did wrong. I shot the entire recital but, um, now it won't play back."

"Ok. We'll just take a look." Chuck took the small video camera and opened its tape slot. "And you don't have a tape in here."

"But it's digital."

"Oh, boy," Morgan said from the peanut gallery.

"Right, yes," Chuck said, "but you still need digital tape."

"Oh, no. Her mom's gonna kill me.'

Chuck looked to the beautiful woman who had been interrupted. She gave him a commiserating smile. Chuck said to the green-shirted salesman who was still hanging around and who was definitely not selling, "Morgan, I need the wall."

Morgan pointed at him with both hands and said, "It's yours," before shooting off.

To Sarah, Chuck said, "I'm so sorry. Please wait here." He quietly added at the end, "We need to talk."

Sarah expression changed to one of confusion as Chuck went out the opposite end of the Nerd Herd station and led the man and his daughter to the digital camera tapes.

Over the next few minutes, Chuck looked Sarah's way a few times. Her face kept changing. Sometimes she seemed enamored with what was happening. Other times her smile was gone, replaced with a look of concern. Either way, she showed no sign of moving.

The camcorder was set on a tripod pointing at the wall of TVs. The screens showed a live feed of what the camcorder was recording: a ballerina in front of the wall of TV screens, each one showing her. It was a cool effect for a makeshift stage. A stereo had been set up to play the song from the girl's recital: "Festival of the Clocks & Dance of the Hours." The little performer looked uncertain, though. Chuck knelt beside the girl and asked, "Are you ready? What's wrong?"

"I'm usually in the back row," the girl shyly said.

"Why?"

"I'm too tall. I block the other ballerinas."

"Can I tell a secret? You can't tell the other girls." Chuck knew he wasn't quiet enough that no one could hear him, but it really didn't matter. No one was going to tell the other girls and upset them. The girl just needed to know it was ok that she was in the front. "Real ballerinas _are_ tall."

Chuck stepped to the side, the song started, and the little girl performed flawlessly. Chuck stood on the side of the audience, away from the person he needed to talk to, but he looked towards her a few times more times. She was smiling again, happy that the girl and her father were happy. The last time that Chuck looked over, he met her luminous eyes before quickly looking away. Before he did, he saw Sarah's smile drop.

After the audience clapped at the performance, Chuck started to walk back over to the Nerd Herd desk where he had left his beautiful guest. He was cut off by the one person who worked at the store that he found more annoying than even the perverts Lester and Jeff: Harold Tiberius Tang.

"Chuck!" the short, bald, Korean man in a green Polo practically yelled at him. It was very unprofessional in public.

"Hi, Harry. We'll be back up and running in five minutes," Chuck calmly said.

"Five minutes!? Do you know what five minutes means in Buy More dollars?"

"I didn't realize we had our own currency. I'm sorry about all the commotion." _And it's important to keep customers happy_, Chuck mentally added.

"We are not stock boys anymore, Chuck! We are _leaders_. Buy More leaders. And you wonder why Big Mike wants me for assistant manager."

"There's an open position? Big Mike didn't tell me."

"And why should he? He knows you won't leave the comfort of the Herd."

Chuck needed to figure out how to get away from his counterpart, the man who supervised the green-shirted salesmen rather than the Nerd Herd computer technicians. Right at that moment, an angel showed up to rescue him. "Excuse me, I've been waiting for Chuck to finish helping me. That man and his daughter clearly couldn't wait, so I'm glad, no I'm impressed that he helped them before finishing with me. I'm willing to wait for a customer who has an emergency, but now that Chuck is done, I'd appreciate his help again. He's been great so far, and from what I couldn't help but hear over there, this doesn't sound important."

Harry mumbled something indiscernible and excused himself. Sarah looked straight at Chuck and seriously said, "We need to talk."

"Yes, we do," Chuck agreed. He pointed to the corner of the store. "Home theater room."

Inside the room, Chuck closed the curtains. When Sarah saw what he was doing, she locked the dead bolts on both doors. Then, she took charge. "Sit down." Chuck quickly complied, and Sarah remained standing. "Earlier, why did _you_ say we needed to talk? It sounded important—not like a typical guy wanting to flirt more with a girl."

Chuck gulped. Sarah gave him a look that said, "Well?"

He started a rapid explanation that really didn't explain. "I don't want you to think that any guy wouldn't want to flirt with you. You're more beautiful than any woman I've ever seen, and this is LA. I just wouldn't want to flirt with you because I'm not experienced at that. Not that you aren't someone who I wished I could flirt well with without insulting. What I don't understand is you said 'more.' Does that mean we were flirting? I didn't realize that. Like I said, I'm not experienced."

Sarah ignored the question and cut right back to the point. "Why did you say we need to talk?"

"I have an email for you."

Sarah pulled back her head in surprise.

Chuck tried to clear up her confusion. "You're Bryce's partner, right? He never said your name's 'Sarah,' but he said his partner and girlfriend was a gorgeous blonde. I was expecting to see _him_ today, but you showed up, so I assume you're his partner."

In the flash of an eye, Sarah pulled a gun from the back of her waistband and pointed it at Chuck. "You _were_ working with Bryce."

"Whoa!" Chuck said. "I'm kinda freaking out here. No need for that. Please don't shoot me. I have no intention of giving the email to Bryce."

"You said you were going to see him today."

"I thought I was, but Bryce was coming whether I wanted it or not. I don't understand all of this spy stuff, but have a seat and I'll explain what I do understand. No need to make a mess of this room."

Sarah sat at the other end of the sofa, but kept her gun aimed at Chuck.

"Right. Ok. Just please don't shoot me accidentally. I'm one of the good guys here. I don't even know what's in that email. When Bryce called me two days ago, I was shocked to find out he's in the CIA. I hadn't talked to him in over five years, since college."

"Wasn't he your best friend?"

"No, that's Morgan. You met Morgan. He's kind of dangerous at planning Call of Duty strategies, but in the real world, he's harmless. He's been my best friend for twenty years. Bryce was my roommate at Stanford. I thought he was a very good friend. He wasn't a friend at all. During our senior year, he framed me for stealing the answer key to a test of a class I was doing really well in. He also said I'd been selling copies to other students. I was on scholarship, which I wouldn't risk. It was worth a lot more than what cheating college kids might pay. I live with my sister, and she had just finished her residency so was making a decent paycheck for a change. Financially, it was the best we'd been since our dad left us when I was in high school. Initially, I didn't understand why Bryce would frame me like that. Later, I found out he was dating the girl I had been with for a couple years. Sorry, he's your boyfriend and probably don't want to hear about him and other women. It was a while ago. It's just that he was a bit of a player. He always got the best girls back in college. Ruining my life to steal my girlfriend made sense."

Sarah said, "He was never my _boyfriend_. We were partnered as a couple a lot and with undercover work… we were involved, but we never went on what one would call a real date. He was too self-centered, always doing things like taking full credit for completing missions when I'm the person that saved his life. Don't worry about protecting my feelings. I believe your story." She lowered the gun. "When he framed you, he already had been recruited by the CIA, and he would do things like that because he thought being a spy justified whatever he did. I want to know why you worked with Bryce after that."

"I'm _not_ working with Bryce. I don't trust him. He's the last person in the world that I'd trust. He called me up after more than five years and told me that he was going to break into a government facility. He gave me some excuse that he was preventing an internal strike—stealing the intel before the bad guys could. I had no reason to believe him. For all I knew, he was stealing secrets to sell them on the black market. However, I didn't want to demand proof someone from telling me he was about to steal from the government for the greater good."

Sarah said, "Last night, he blew up the computer holding the intel."

Chuck's eyes went wide, but he continued, "He wanted me to hold the intelligence, the email he sent me last night, so he could get it from me today. I asked him why he didn't work with the partner he had bragged about so much... you. To be honest, I wasn't sure that you were real. At the time, I thought he was exaggerating, trying to impress me. In school, he dated a lot of women who were probably in wet t-shirt contents. I see now my imagination didn't do you justice."

Sarah made a small, closed-mouth smile at the compliment. When Chuck realized what he said, he blushed and kept talking, "Bryce said he was being recruited by a rogue faction and you were somewhere in Europe. He needed someone outside the CIA to hold the information."

"It sounds like you didn't like him, but you were still his accomplice."

"No. I didn't have much of a choice, but I had a plan. When a CIA agent who has a history of screwing over your life says, 'Hold this,' you don't argue. I just received an email. If I had told him no, who knows what he would've done before going to someone else who might work with him and betray our country. When he sent the email, it downloaded to my hard drive, but I didn't look at its large attachment. Before I received the email, I cloned my hard drive. Afterwards, I swapped the clean drive into my computer. When Bryce showed today, I planned to give him the hard drive currently in my computer, the one without the email. If he checked, it would look like a computer error. Those happen. Things like that are part of why I have a job. If Bryce gave it to the bad guys without checking, they wouldn't get the intel. Either way, after he left, I'd give the hard drive with the email to the authorities. I figured my friends and family would be safe because Bryce would have to go into hiding from both the good guys and the bad guys."

Sarah seriously said, "He doesn't have to go into hiding. He's dead."

"He's what!?"

"He's dead. He died emailing the secrets to you." She lowered her gun to her lap. "Why are you telling me all of this?"

"Bryce said you were working for the big boss. I assume that's the CIA's equivalent of M."

"M?"

"Judi Dench. The head of MI-6 in the last five James Bond movies."

"My boss isn't fictional."

"Of course. Sorry. If you work directly for him, you're pretty important. Bryce didn't say you regularly saved his life, but that doesn't surprise me. In school, he didn't share credit when he could take it for himself. We programmed a computer game together back then and sold it to other students for beer. At one point it seemed like he was telling other he programmed it all himself, but a classmate told me privately that the game was a lot of fun and most people figured I did most of the coding. Bryce also said he didn't want to work with you for this operation. In my book, him not wanting to work for you is a big point in your favor."

Chuck halted his rapid rambling and took a deep breath. With pleading in his eyes, he asked, "Could you please take these secrets off my hands? I want nothing to do with whatever Bryce was involved with."

Sarah stared at Chuck a few seconds as if she was trying to figure out a puzzle. She had expected to meet the ally of a traitor, not a nice, cute guy who was practically gift wrapping her mission object for her. She stared at him for a while more. She slowly smiled, leaned in, and lightly kissed Chuck on the cheek. "Thank you, Chuck." He didn't respond, frozen with a half-amazed, half-astonished grin on his face. Sarah saw his expression, laughed, kissed him on the cheek again, and swatted the other cheek to break him out of his stupor.

"This email is on a hard drive? Is it here or at your home?" Sarah asked.

"Home. Our lockers here aren't very secure. If you can hang around until after I get off work, I have two hours left in my shift."

"What Bryce stole is _very_ important. It is more important than your shift, even at a job in which you're the Burbank hero, saving the marriages of random customers and boosting the self-esteem of little girls. Bryce killed a night guard while he was escaping. Treason and murder are both capital offenses. I think you're lucky you don't have to deal with him because who knows what Bryce would have done if he came out here, even if you played along." Sarah took a firm hold of Chuck hand to make sure she understood. "We need to go _now_."

Chuck looked down at their joined hands, then looked in Sarah's blue eyes. He hoped she didn't notice his hands were starting to sweat. "Right. I'm the supervisor for the Nerd Herd, and we don't have an assistant manager right now, so I need to check-in with Big Mike. He's the overall store manager. I go to offsite computer service jobs, so I can use that as an excuse. It'll just take a minute, then we can go." He got up and left the room.

As he walked across the store with Sarah closely behind him, he noticed that he was gathering stares from many of his co-workers. Chuck left Sarah outside Big Mike's office and went to notify his boss that he would be leaving. He wanted to ask about the assistant manager position, but it was not the time.

Big Mike gave Chuck some resistance because Anna was supposed to cover offsite jobs for the rest of the day and he didn't want to deal with Jeff and Lester on a day they were working. Sarah stepped through the door into the office, linked her arm through Chuck's, and said to Big Mike, "I just moved here from DC, but I need to contact work tonight. Chuck has already been a great help, and I don't want any more problems. I need him."

Big Mike started coughing on the Subway cookie he was in the middle of eating. He pounded his chest and choked out that he was ok, downing the drink in his green cup with a yellow lid. He waved them off to leave for the "offsite install."

Before Chuck and Sarah walked to the front, Chuck said, "I don't need to clock out because officially, I'm still working, but I should get a work order form from the Nerd Herd desk. Otherwise, everyone is going to assume our 'install' has little to do with computers."

Sarah maintained her hold through their linked arms and shrugged, "That's fine with me." Chuck wondered if his face could turn permanently red.

When they were about to exit through the front, they heard a smattering of applause. They both looked back to see what the fuss was about. When Chuck realized they were applauding him leaving with a beautiful woman before his shift was over, he discovered his face could turn a darker shade of red.

Sarah withdrew her arm from Chuck's, put both hands on his cheeks, and gave him a short kiss on the lips. Chuck was too shocked to respond. Sarah pulled back and whispered, "That's is? Come on. We can do better than that." Sarah proceeded to kiss him harder. At first, Chuck was still stunned, but he started to kiss back just as Sarah pulled away again. What they both felt at the end was unexpected. They looked into each other's eyes for a few seconds, both surprised by whatever that feeling was. When Sarah leaned in a third time, Chuck met her half-way. After several more seconds, she finally released her hold on his face, took his hand, and led them out to her car.

Sarah released his hand so they could go to opposite sides of her Porsche. Across the car, Chuck said, "Not that I'm complaining, but what was that?"

Sarah shrugged. "At first it was for cover. Like you said, it's why everyone thought we were leaving. Then... I didn't want to stop. Let's go. The sooner I get this email, the sooner you get the CIA out of your life."

That morning, Chuck had wanted nothing more than the CIA out of his life. Now he wasn't so sure.

* * *

A/N: Minor, non-obvious spoiler: The ampersand in the title is important. Just sayin'. Although, I've read a couple people talk about Sarah being the most important person in the show because of her character arc. Maybe all Chuck fanfic stories should be Chuck & Sarah vs something.


	2. What Was That?

_Posted October 27, 2019_

A/N: What do the Buy Morons think? What _are_ Chuck and Sarah doing? Are they completing a mission, one that the Buy Morons wouldn't comprehend? Or are they doing something else, one that the people at the Green and Gold might assume but wouldn't comprehend, either? Or both. It always takes Chuck and Sarah longer to understand what is going on than the readers here.

I have "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)" by Cher stuck in my head. Chuck didn't even initiate what happened at the end of the last chapter. Does that make it "her kiss" or "their kiss?"

* * *

Chuck and Sarah hit the expressway in Sarah's Porsche. He said it wasn't far to his apartment. With the way Sarah was weaving through traffic, they'd be there in half the time.

Sarah looked over at Chuck as she slipped between two cars. "What is it? You know, you don't need to hold on the door handle so hard you cut off circulation to your fingers. I'll get us there safely."

Chuck let go and flexed his hand open and closed.

In a non-threatening voice, she said, "You can relax. I know I pulled a gun on you earlier, but I put that away. You can trust my driving."

"Sure. This is a really nice car, and you obviously know how to handle it. What it is capable of. You wouldn't let anything happen to your car."

"This isn't mine.

"Please don't tell me you stole it from the airport.

"It's a rental."

"You can rent a car like this?"

"There's a place. CIA agents are trained to disable the GPS so we can move around without a record of where we've been. I have to leave this car in perfect condition, completely reassembled, so you have nothing to worry about."

"Of course," Chuck tried and failed to sound like he was convinced.

Sarah took the CA-2 South exit towards Echo Park and glanced over at Chuck for an instant. "You don't look calmer. What's the real problem? I am sorry I pointed a gun at you. I'm not used to a mark knowing I'm a spy." The road had a little less traffic, so Sarah drove faster.

"That's not it. My sister and her boyfriend will be at home because today they're working at the hospital overnight, so please don't pull out a gun with them around. They don't know anything about the email. My sister's a bit overprotective. She'd flip out if she knew there was a gun in the apartment. She'd flip out if she knew Bryce called me, even not knowing he was a spy."

"I'll keep the gun concealed. What is it, though? What is it _really_?" Chuck didn't answer. His face started a trace of a smile. Sarah said, "That's something different. What are you thinking about now?"

Chuck failed to force his face to be more serious. "I was thinking about before."

"But not the gun. Oh. The other thing."

The road merged down into Glendale Boulevard. It was still four lanes each direction, but now they had lights.

"What _was_ that?" Chuck asked.

Sitting at a red light, Sarah said, "I was improving your reputation."

Chuck laughed. "Leaving with an attractive woman won't make sense to anyone who has a preconception of me. I might not be the last or second to last person who works there they'd think would ever be that lucky, but I'm not much higher, because I've never tried to pick up a woman at work. You probably do this sort of thing all the time: manipulate guys to do whatever you want. I'm not complaining about being on the receiving end. What happened back there will be the talk of the store for months. "

Sarah started to drive again. She said, "I came to get information from you, but you aren't like any other mark I've had on a mission for work. You're a good guy. I didn't even have to manipulate you. You simply helped that man and his daughter, then offered me exactly what I was there for. I didn't have to kiss you to get you to do what I wanted. The first kiss was for cover. The second was because you didn't seem to respond, so I wanted to solidify the cover."

"I was shocked. But I did participate at the end of the second one. The third is the one I don't understand."

Sarah stopped at another light. "The third."

"Yeah. What was that?"

Sarah bit her lower lip and didn't say anything. The light turned, and she started again. "You kept your hands to yourself. I wasn't expecting that."

"I'm not big on PDA," Chuck said.

"So it's even better when there isn't an audience?"

"Even better? What do you mean?"

"Don't worry about it. It was sweet."

"Golly gee. Thanks for making me feel like I'm eight."

"I wouldn't say that. I mean sweet in a good way. I feel sorry for that girl you dated in college. After sampling both you and Bryce… I guess haven't _sampled_ you, yet. After _tasting_ both you and Bryce, she couldn't have known that she was giving up something so much better than what she foolishly picked."

Chuck couldn't put a sound to any words as Sarah pulled into his subdivision.

Sarah said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. I normally don't like to talk much. Next time, we won't talk about it so much afterwards. "

"Meep."

"What now?"

"You said 'next time.'"

Sarah smiled and wiggled her eyebrows. "That just slipped out. I do have to complete my mission, which means going back to DC. As long as you aren't playing me, I do expect a goodbye kiss, if that's not presuming too much.

Chuck turned red, yet again. "No. Whatever you want."

Sarah parked by the curb, and her face lit up with a big smile. As they walked through an arch to the courtyard of the apartment complex, he said, "I have to prepare you. I mentioned there are two other people in my apartment."

"Yeah. You said your sister and her boyfriend are home."

"They'll be up. Their shifts start around 10 PM. Ellie and Captain Awesome were sleeping when I got up this morning. They got up after noon and won't go in to work until after dinner."

Sarah laughed out loud. "So wait. You call him 'Captain Awesome?'"

"Yeah, wait till you meet him. Everything he does is awesome. Climbing mountains, jumping out of planes, flossing."

Sarah laughed again as they stopped in front of the door. "That's funny."

"Well, I'm a funny guy."

"Clearly. Which is good, because I'm not funny."

"Is that what's wrong with you? I was thinking either a cannibal or not that funny. I was pulling for cannibal because I've never met one before. At least, I hope I haven't. Something has to be wrong with you."

"Uh, not a cannibal. Just a CIA assassin. That comes with baggage."

"Turns out I roomed with one of those in college. As for baggage, I could be your very own baggage handler."

Chuck didn't know what he was saying. His verbal control had run away. In less than an hour, Sarah would be off saving the world somewhere else, and he'd never see her again. Surprisingly, Sarah didn't look upset. That knowledge didn't make the situation less awkward. Sarah had one way to get past the awkwardness. They were still kissing when the door to the apartment was opened from the inside by Ellie, startling them apart.

"I thought I heard something. It's you! Chuck, I thought you wouldn't be home for a couple hours." Ellie looked over to Sarah. "And you have company. We haven't met. I'm Chuck's sister, Ellie. It's a pleasure to meet you—"

"Sarah," the spy finished for her. "I heard all about you on our way over here. At the Buy More, Chuck fixed a problem I had with a cellphone. We started talking about another computer problem I've been having, and he said he could show me on his computer here."

"Ok. My brother is a great guy, and you have nothing to worry about, but a man you'd never met asked you to his home, and you said yes?"

Sarah said, "It wasn't his idea. Chuck help was...impressive. He told me he couldn't help with my computer problem by showing me at the store. I insisted we come here so he could show me. He talked to his boss, and it was close enough to the end of his shift to leave. He got permission for a...what's this called...an offsite computer repair job. Don't worry, we'll stay out of your and Captain Awesome's way."

"Please don't call him that. Devon hates the nickname. But please, please come in." Ellie backed up to make room for Chuck and his guest.

Inside, Ellie introduced Sarah and Devon to each other. Sarah explained that she was there to see something on Chuck's computer. Devon raised his eyebrows and said to "have fun." Embarrassed, Chuck didn't bother trying to correct the assumption because Devon was always saying inappropriate things like that. He just led Sarah to his room.

Inside, Sarah shut the door. Through the door, they heard. "Awesome. Way to go, Chuck."

Sarah couldn't hold a laugh in any longer. She said, "That's four."

"You know what they think we're doing in here. You asked to see my computer in my bedroom, then shut the door."

"Ok, that does sound like something else, but I'm actually here to see your computer. The hard drive just happens to be filled will national secrets. The cover is useful. I shouldn't stay long, but we do have a shut door," Sarah added a wink.

Chuck felt himself turning red for about the twentieth time that afternoon. He decided it was best to go ahead and get what Sarah came for. He opened a desk drawer and handed her a hard drive.

"Are you sure this is the right one?"

"Yes. I swapped it this morning before I went to work."

"Ok. I need to call this in. It's too bad I can't see the director in person. I'm not sure I'd believe what happened if I heard it over the phone."

Chuck said, "Can you wait five minutes?"

"Why?"

"I can place a video conference call for you."

"You can't skype the Director of Special Operations for the CIA. The call has to be secure," Sarah insisted.

"I know. I just need a few minutes to set this up, if you can wait."

"Call me intrigued. This I want to see."

Chuck's hands started flying at the keyboard, jumping between three different programs. Sarah couldn't follow everything he was doing. She did recognize something that looked like the CIA employee directory. Chuck shouldn't have been able to get into that.

Right before five minutes had elapsed, Chuck had a full screen window on his computer monitor with a video call going out. He tried to move over to the side of the room so he wasn't on the call, but Sarah pulled him back to stand next to her. The call was answered after a couple seconds by a stern looking man, sitting at a desk, wearing a suit.

"Sarah, where are you? How are you calling me? Who is that with you?"

Chuck stayed quiet, letting Sarah take the lead. "Director, I have the email Bryce sent to Chuck Bartowski." She held up the loose hard drive. Indicating the man next to her, she said, "This is Chuck Bartowski. He wasn't working with Bryce."

"I don't understand."

Sarah explained, "Chuck had a very bad history with Bryce back in college. He ruined Chuck's life, but Bryce was cocky enough to think it wasn't a big deal. Who wouldn't want to forgive what he did to be friends with a spy? He contacted Chuck a couple days ago, telling him to hold the intelligence for him until he could retrieve it today. Chuck didn't trust him and put the email on this hard drive, never looking at it. He planned to give Bryce a phony hard drive and report him. If he tried reporting him ahead of time, it wouldn't have worked. No one would have believed a civilian reporting the future theft of national secrets from a top secret project. Chuck's best play was to go along and give Bryce nothing, making Bryce the target of both the CIA and the people he was working with. When I showed up instead, Chuck practically gift wrapped this for me."

Director Graham remained solemn, his voice less concerned, but still curious. "Thank you...Chuck. How did you reach me? That doesn't look like a CIA facility. You shouldn't have been able to call me on my computer. Agent Walker has my direct phone number to use during urgent circumstances on missions, but even she doesn't have my video call contact information. Video calls have to be arranged in advance."

Chuck spoke for the first time. "Director Graham, sir, I found the office of Sarah's superior."

Graham knew that didn't explain everything. "This call said it was coming from Agent Walker, not from you. You're not using her laptop."

"I backtracked her electronic employee fingerprint ID through the employee directory. That allowed me to spoof this call as coming from her."

"You shouldn't have been able to get into that, not to mention using it to look up information that isn't actually listed for employees. I hope this connection is encrypted."

"Of course, it is," Chuck asserted

"You did all this from your home computer? Impressive. I think it's a good thing you _weren't_ working for Bryce. Our records show you were kicked out of Stanford and have been working at a Buy More."

"Yes."

"You definitely have elite skills. I assume Larkin somehow set you up. You seem like exactly the type of person that we want working for us," Graham said.

"I don't know—"

Sarah cut him off. "I'll talk to Chuck. Maybe we can at least get him started working for us as an outside contractor."

"That would work. Good job retrieving the email. Before you bring it in, though, I need you to verify it."

Sarah said, "I'll confirm it."

Chuck said, "That's no problem. I haven't seen it. She has the only copy. I can show the email to Sarah right here."

"Thank you, Agent Walker, and thank you, Chuck. Agent Walker, please report for a debrief after you get back."

"Yes, sir."

Graham disconnected the call.

Sarah put her hand on Chuck's cheek and said, "I believe you, but we still need to ensure the email is on this hard drive."

"I understand. Trust, but verify. I'll show it to you."

In only a few minutes, Chuck swapped the hard drives so he could show the email to the CIA agent. When Chuck loaded the email, it said that it had an attachment. Sarah told him to open it. The screen turned black, and a single sentence was written across it: "The terrible troll raises his sword."

"What's that mean?" Sarah asked.

Chuck said, "It's from a text-based video game that Bryce and I programmed back at Stanford using an emulator for a TRS-80. Windows 98 was out, so we needed an emulator for the Trash 80, which was discontinued in 1981. I admit it. We were nerds back then."

"Does this mean Bryce emailed you the wrong thing?"

"No. I only have to remember what was in my hero's satchel," Chuck answered.

"What good would that do?" Sarah asked.

"The weapon I would use to kill the terrible troll."

"It's like a password?"

"Yes. It's a good thing we looked at this first, because while your CIA tech guys probably played Zork, they wouldn't know what to type in for this custom text adventure."

"Go ahead and type in the password," Sarah instructed.

"But I shouldn't see this," Chuck said with concern.

"We're just confirming we can in. We're not going to read anything. After you have proven we can get past the password challenge screen, you can shut this off, and I can take the hard drive."

With a depressed voice, Chuck said, "And then you go away."

Saran put her hand on Chuck's shoulder and squeezed. "I don't know how this is going to work, but I did say 'next time.' I was thinking about more than what your sister caught us doing."

Chuck smiled and typed, "Attack troll with nasty knife."

Images started rapidly flashing on the screen. Chuck and Sarah stared at the images, almost like they had been hypnotized. After a while, the images stopped, and both Chuck and Sarah fell backwards onto the floor.

* * *

A/N: Oh, boy!


	3. Do You Want to See My…

_Posted October 28, 2019_

A/N: My last two AUs started before or shortly after the first episode, and they had 0 and 1 Human Intersects. This story is called Chuck & Sarah vs the Email. That's all I'm saying about that because the Intersect was glitchy.

* * *

Ellie lightly knocked on the door, hoping that she wasn't overstepping. She knew she tended to do that. Chuck had never brought a woman home, even for work, as if Ellie would ever buy the "work" excuse. After what Ellie saw then doing when she opened the door into the courtyard, she didn't see the need for some feeble computer emergency excuse. Somehow, Chuck got this woman to want to go home with him. That wasn't important. She had been expecting that some night Chuck would be depressed because after finally working up the nerve to ask a woman at the store for her number, he'd discover that he had been given a fake one. Ellie thought that even that heartbreak might be a good thing because it would be forward progress. She had no idea how Chuck pulled this off. It's not like he was smooth or slimy enough to invite an attractive woman home to "see his etchings." If Ellie hadn't opened the front door on them, they might still be lip-locked, and she'd be wondering when Chuck was coming home for dinner.

With no answer, Ellie knocked a little harder. Ellie didn't believe anyone was out of her brother's league. She really didn't believe in leagues. But that was after two people got to know each other a little. There has to be a connection, first. Or a convenient closet. Somehow, Chuck got up the nerve to put himself out there. Maybe it was this woman's doing, but Ellie didn't want to be suspicious of Sarah. She seemed perfectly friendly—not a praying mantis type, though that analogy didn't work since they weren't in her "lair."

Still no answer, Ellie pounded with her first. This was ridiculous. She really hoped they weren't doing what she thought they were doing in bed. If her brother finally got a girl, good for him, but he didn't need to go from 0 to 100 that fast. Ellie had come to the room to find out whether Sarah would like to join them for dinner. She didn't know what her brother was doing and didn't want to interrupt whatever that was.

Did it even qualify as "afternoon delight" when it was the first time? It would have been nice if they had waited until Devon and she went to work. Then they could make as much noise as they wanted doing…whatever. Looking down and holding her hand above her eyes, Ellie took a deep breath and slowly opened the door.

"I hope you're dressed. I'm just here to find out if I should set four places for dinner. You two can have the whole place to yourselves after we eat and after Devon and I get out of here."

Ellie stopped two feet into the room, waiting for a response. She didn't hear a sound, not even the rustle of two people covering themselves with a blanket. That was odd. Ellie cautiously lifted her head and removed her hand. The bed was made and undisturbed. Thinking they might have left, she immediately looked at the window that Morgan sometimes came in. It was closed. She then noticed two people lying on the floor at the foot of the bed.

Switching to doctor-mode, Ellie immediately went to check on the two people on the floor. She light swatted Chuck's cheek, and he groaned a little, jerking his head. He looked like he was starting to come around. Ellie shook Sarah's shoulder, and the woman turned to her side and rolled half of top of Chuck.

"Well, isn't that cozy," she said, not really to anyone. Time to stop this. "Chuck! Get up!"

Chuck groaned loudly and opened his eyes. Still not with-it, he asked, "What happened?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out."

Chuck looked to see what was on him, and when he saw it was Sarah, he quickly tried to get up. In Chuck's condition, he didn't have much of a chance because Sarah's hand was tightly gripping onto Chuck's shirt, holding him down. When Chuck realized his new friend wasn't letting him go anywhere, he gently shook the woman's shoulder. After a couple seconds of groggily waking up, Sarah noticed her surroundings and shot up to a seated position, immediately alert.

"Are you two all right?" Ellie asked. "Do you remember what happened?" Chuck and Sarah looked at each other, neither saying anything. With no answer, Ellie said, "I came in to invite Sarah to join us for dinner, but I'm going to be a doctor now. You might have a head injury, and that happens to be my specialty."

Sarah said, "Is this where you have me put on a gown with an opening in the back and you ask me to explain my childhood scars?"

Before Ellie could respond to that, Chuck quickly said, "You don't need to examine us, Ellie. We're fine. Remember, you promised."

That made Ellie pause. She had made a promise years ago, when Chuck was home one summer from college. Chuck had never liked her treating him like a patient. However, this wasn't practicing for medical school or treating a first degree, household burn. This was potentially serious. The two of them had been unconscious. She wasn't going to wrap Chuck's head in a bandage. She was thinking an MRI at the hospital might be warranted. True, taking a woman to the hospital wasn't best for a first impression. Ellie needed to understand a little more. "You still haven't explained what happened."

Sarah spoke up first. "Chuck's college roommate, Bryce Larkin, sent Chuck an email. It was some sort of Trojan horse. It started one of those patterns like what causes epileptic seizures. It must have knocked us both out."

Ellie sighed. "Bryce did this? Well at least he didn't ruin Chuck's birthday." She paused, looking them over some more. "And you two appear ok. But you really should get checked out at the hospital."

Sarah said, "I really don't want to wait in the hospital all night until the right doctor comes in the morning. You said you're a head specialist."

"I'm a neurologist."

"Great. I just came into town on business and don't want to spend all of my time dealing with insurance. You can talk to us at dinner, and if we seem off, we'll follow doctor's orders and go in."

"I don't have equipment here."

"You can see our motor skills are ok using silverware and verify we don't have slurred speech."

"I suppose so, as long as if I see a problem, you don't argue and go in without making me call 9-1-1. Don't think you can fool me. I'll be able to tell if my brother is acting weird...well if he's acting weirder than usual."

Chuck gave off a fake laugh.

Ellie ignored him and said to Sarah, "What I want to know is, how do you know Bryce Larkin?"

Sarah calmly replied, "When Chuck and I were talking before I came here, Chuck told me about him, how he screwed him over at Stanford."

"And you still wanted something to do with him?" Ellie gave a disapproving look to Chuck. "I suppose he told you about Jill, too."

"That's her name? I also heard about the old girlfriend who cheated on him with Bryce, but he didn't mention a name."

Ellie swatted Chuck hard, and he rubbed the spot. "So much for the first date rule. The first date rule applies to _both_ Jill and Bryce." She saw the frightened look on Chuck's face and realized what she had implied. "Not that I'm saying this is a date. It's still not a date when _I'm_ the person asking Sarah to dinner. And you are only invited if you truly think you are ok and don't need to go to the hospital right now."

Sarah replied, "I'm already feeling much better. Dinner would be wonderful."

"Great. Dinner will be in forty-five minutes. I'll just…" Ellie pointed to the door, got up, and left, leaving Chuck and Sarah sitting on the floor alone with a door that was once again, conveniently shut."

Chuck said, "It's a good thing we were dressed. She might think—"

Sarah said, "We've been in here a while. We could have gotten dressed before passing out."

"The bed's made," Chuck argued.

"It's good to know you keep things neat. Spies don't like leaving a mess behind."

Chuck squeaked out. "Good to know? I guess I could have remade the bed. My tie is on, though."

Sarah shrugged, "You're cute in that."

Chuck groaned. "Not you too. A woman told me that last night."

"Modelling for a lot of women lately?"

"No. I was waiting for that email, and my sister threw a surprise party for my birthday. She had invited a bunch of her doctor friends from work. Before last night, I had never met most of them. I've never done well with women I don't know, until you."

"Their loss. My gain," Sarah said, making a close-mouthed, satisfied smile.

Chuck cleared his throat and asked, "Why did you tell Ellie about the email?"

"We don't know what happened, and if we didn't tell your sister something, she was bound to ask more questions. We're lucky that she so easily accepted the excuse that it's Bryce's fault. We didn't get close to talking about how this was related to stolen intelligence. Secrets are easier to keep if you don't lie about things that don't have to be kept secret."

"Why did you say yes to dinner?" Chuck asked.

Sarah shrugged and got up before helping Chuck to his feet. She didn't let go of his hand. "I have to eat. I might as well have a quick dinner with you."

"You are significantly underestimating Ellie's cooking. Right now she's out there cooking for the first woman that I've ever brought home. She's probably out there picking out a centerpiece."

"I should stop her. I don't want her to go to a lot of trouble before she has to work."

"Don't bother," Chuck said. "It's what she does. She always makes bigger deals out of meals than need be."

"What if I have to leave, to deal with whatever happened?" Sarah asked.

"It'll be ok. I won't blame you. She'll readily accept that I freaked out at the prospect of an evening with a beautiful woman."

"Am I really that intimidating?" Sarah questioned. "Don't you want to spend more time with me?"

"Of course I want to spend more time in your presence. You can be a little scary. You pointed a gun at me earlier, and the way you drive…but I'm past that. When I look in your eyes…" Chuck made two exploding motions with his hands. "You smile, and it's like…whaa," he sang. "There's something about you that makes me feel safe. And… I should stop with the compliments."

"If you must. Let's see what happened with the email."

Chuck and Sarah stepped up to the computer. Chuck said, "Excuse me, could I have this back?" He held up their still linked hands.

"If you must," Sarah said with a flirty smile as she let go.

The screen was in standby. When Chuck woke it up, he looked at the email file. "This is wrong," he said. "The attachment has a timestamp from an hour ago. That means the file modified itself."

"Can you open it again?" Sarah asked.

"Do you want to pass out on the floor again?" Chuck countered.

Sarah said, "Tell me what to click and look away."

Chuck said, "Don't worry." He held a graphic novel in front of the monitor to block their view and clicked the mouse. After few seconds, nothing seemed to have happened. Chuck said, "Weren't there flashing lights before? We should see light reflecting off the walls." He cautiously pulled down the book. The computer showed an error box. The file could not be run.

Sarah asked, "Why is nothing happening? It worked when we got here."

"It looks like it corrupted itself." He ran another program to analyze the file. "Whatever was in there has been overwritten. If it had just been deleted, there's ways of bringing it back. This looks like it did the same thing the DoD uses to delete files. It overwrote the file with all zeros, then all ones, then random ones and zeros. The pattern is that there is no pattern." He clicked on a few more things. "There's no image signature where there should be a lot of them."

"We need to call this in."

Chuck placed another video call from his computer to Washington. After a moment, the screen was again filled with a video image of Sarah's superior. He must work long days. It was close to 8:30 on the East Coast, and he showed no signs of leaving.

"Agent Walker, Mr Bartowski," Director Graham said in his impressively deep voice.

"Chuck. You can call me Chuck."

"Chuck. Agent Walker. I can tell from your faces that something is wrong. Did something happen with the email?"

Sarah spoke, "Chuck showed me the email. It had a riddle password which only Chuck and Bryce would know, from their time together in school. It was a good thing we had Chuck look first because who knows what would have happened if our techs tried to get into it. What happened is almost as bad. Unfortunately, when Chuck solved the riddle, the screen was filled with thousands of images. We couldn't look away. When it was over, we passed out. Chuck's sister found us unconscious on the floor. She's a doctor so she was concerned. She didn't see anything. The program corrupted itself. Chuck said it was erased using DoD conventions for secure deletion."

"That's very unfortunate, but not our primary concern right now. We have another problem. The NSA has dispatched John Casey to retrieve the Intersect. He's flying out to Camp Pendleton late tomorrow afternoon."

"Casey," Sarah said with disdain.

"An NSA facility was destroyed. Since he's out of my chain of command, I'm sorry to say, I can't stop him. Considering Larkin was one of ours, we have to be careful to not create an inter-agency incident."

Sarah asserted, "I'll stay here and handle it when he arrives."

"Are you sure? This needs a softer touch than what you're best at."

"We'll be fine. Casey will stand down when I tell him what happened. Chuck's sister has invited me to dinner tonight. I'll stay close and intercept Casey when he arrives."

A little concerned, Graham started, "This sister—"

Sarah cut off that line of thinking. "She's zero threat. She's been extremely nice. She and Chuck are very close, and she'd obviously protective. I said she's a doctor. She specializes in the brain, and we had collapsed. To be honest, we're lucky she didn't insist we go to a civilian hospital with her and her boyfriend. He's a doctor, too."

"A cardio-thoracic surgeon," Chuck interjected.

Sarah didn't skip a beat. "These are two people that have dedicated their lives to helping people by working in highly specialized fields. Chuck has been incredibly supportive in this mission. I want to see this through and make sure everything turns out ok for them. They're the type of people we're supposed to protect. They're _better_ than most of those people."

"Ok, Agent Walker. I trust your judgment. Let me know if you have any problems." Graham disconnect the call.

Sarah looked at Chuck and saw he wanted to say something. "What is it?"

Chuck asked, "The course that Bryce framed me for cheating in. The professor did a lecture subliminal information encoded in computer images. I did really well on the bonus section of the midterm, which is why I think they thought I had to be cheating. We just saw a whole lot of images."

"Do you know anything you shouldn't?"

"I don't know," Chuck answered.

"Do you know where I went to high school?" At no reaction, she added, "Which school in San Diego?"

"You went to school near here? No, I didn't know that. I guess I don't just know stuff. Whatever it did, didn't seem to work."

"Oh, I know," Sarah said. She unclasped the belt of the brown leather overcoat that she wore over a white blouse. The blouse had holes throughout so Chuck could easily see Sarah's black bra underneath. Chuck looked to the ceiling as Sarah lifted her shirt a couple inches on the left side and pulled her jeans down an inch. "Chuck, look at this."

Chuck slowly looked down. In the smooth expanse of skin at the front of her hip, he saw an inch-long, thin scar. That's when it happened.

Chuck make a constipated face, rolled his eyes, and blinked rapidly several times. Sarah let her shirt and pants cover her scar, and she grabbed Chuck to steady him. When she was certain Chuck wasn't going to fall, she asked, "What just happened?" She didn't let go of his arm.

"I don't know. I had a sort of flash. I'm sorry. I never thought I'd see your skin beyond what can normally be seen when you walk around. I didn't mean to react like that," he babbled.

"You haven't seen me in a bikini. That shows more skin."

"You can still wear bikinis?"

Sarah gave Chuck a look that said, "Duh." She said, "It's below what shows." Chuck had a dreamy look on his face, so she asked. "What now?"

"I was imagining you in a bikini. Black or something else?"

Sarah smiled. "I have several. I'll model for you sometime." Chuck's eyes grew bigger. "What just happened? It looked like you had a seizure. Do you know something you didn't know before?"

"I know that wasn't a childhood scar. You got that in Pakistan."

"Are you scared of me now?"

"Well, I'm always a little scared of you. Then you kiss me, and that thought vanishes from my head. So far, I'm happy with how it's working out. I've heard a little fear is good, but I never knew it could be that good."

"I can live with that. You _should_ be a little scared of me. Expect me to keep assuaging your fears. Pakistan. Yes. A few years ago I was in a knife fight on a mission. It wasn't really my mission. It was a rescue operation for someone else's mission."

Chuck said, "When you were talking to Ellie about your childhood scars, you really meant classified scars like that?"

"Not _just_ that. I have a childhood one, too, from falling off a bicycle. I'll show you sometime." Chuck started coughing, but that didn't stop her from explaining, "_All_ of my scars are in CIA records, in case they ever need to identify my body. You—what did you call it—you flashed, and now you know stuff about me that you shouldn't otherwise know. It seems like you need a visual trigger."

"What about you? You saw the same images I did. I can't show you any scars that would be in a secret file the CIA has on me. At least I hope they don't have a file like that about me."

Sarah asked, "Where's a mirror?"

Chuck led Sarah across the hall to the bathroom. She shut the door so the doctors in the apartment wouldn't hear what they were talking about, and she looked at herself in the mirror. Nothing happened. She raised her shirt and lowered her pants an inch, again. Still nothing.

She looked over to Chuck and saw that he was looking away to the side of the bathroom, giving her privacy instead of gawking. There was being a gentleman. Then there was being too much of a gentleman. Time to put a stop to that. He had already seen it. In her book, he was allowed.

Sarah yanked Chuck by the arm and swung him against the door where she kissed him with all she had. This time, Chuck didn't wait long to respond. They weren't in a hurry to stop, either. Sarah pushed Chuck's head against the door, making a thud. They finally heard something that did make them stop. A voice from the other room said, "Bathroom sex. Awesome."

Sarah broke apart and started almost uncontrollably laughing. "I understand why you call him Captain Awesome. However, when he interrupts things that are awesome, that's not awesome." After a minute, she got her laughter under control. "One thing's for certain. That computer download didn't change how you taste. It's still fantastic."

Chuck tried to speak several times, but he couldn't make a sound. When his brain finished rebooting, he finally said, "You didn't seem to flash. Why not?"

"I don't know. Maybe it didn't work for me. Or maybe it's because I already know this stuff about myself. For all we know, you are the only person who remembered the Intersect. I should stay with you tonight."

Chuck looked down and said, "I hate myself a little for saying this, but no. If you slept here, I wouldn't get any sleep."

"Is that a problem?" she teased. Or maybe she wasn't teasing. Chuck wasn't sure. Sarah let out a deep breath. "I suppose we're clear until tomorrow. I'll pick you up in the morning and take you to work."

"I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry about. After work, you can take me out to dinner."

"We can go on a date after what happened in there with the email?"

"You're a government contractor, or just about, and I'm a spy. I don't see a problem with whatever we do. The only problem I see is an obstacle that prevents us from going on a date. There's one thing I'm not sure about. We're having dinner tonight. Will tomorrow night be our first date or is tonight our first date?"

Chuck had trouble figuring out how to form words for an answer, again. Sarah laughed lightly, gave Chuck a quick peck on the lips, and sashayed out of the bathroom to the kitchen.

* * *

A/N: There's no external drive, but at least Chuck wasn't the unwitting target of a ninja vendetta.


	4. Dinnertime

_Posted October 29, 2019_

A/N: You gotta eat.

* * *

Out in the kitchen, Chuck and Sarah saw Ellie moving about, humming something that might not even be a tune. It didn't matter to her. She was acting as if all was right in her world. She didn't notice that she had an audience as she cut some vegetables into small sticks. Across the dining area in the next room, Devon rapidly pedaled a stationary bike, wearing headphones.

Chuck took a spot, leaned back against the counter between the kitchen and the dining room. Sarah claimed the spot right next to him so their hips touched. Sarah spoke up, "I didn't mean for you to go to so much effort, Ellie. I knew you were going to work later, so I thought you were making something quick and easy or were ordering take-out."

Ellie spun at the voice, still holding a large knife. "Oh, sorry." She put the knife onto the counter beside her. Ellie's expression had been completely nonthreatening, but Chuck was still alarmed at the sight of a big knife in the hands of his harmless sister, pointed at someone who could do something about it. Sarah had been completely unfazed.

Ellie said, "This is no trouble; it's simple. I'm actually a little embarrassed that I didn't have time to prepare something more. We call this 'Chicken and Cheese.' You just cover chicken breasts with a cream of chicken soup and Swiss cheese slices and bake. I hope I wasn't presuming wrong. You're not a vegetarian are you?"

"No. It smells great. I don't cook much at all, so this will be a treat."

Ellie said, "I'm ashamed to admit the dip is leftover from last night's party."

Chuck asked, "Your seven-layer dip? That was great. I told you it was like it had eight layers."

"Sounds like I'm fortunate to not be missing out on it," Sarah said. "I might not cook much, but I could have helped cut the vegetables. I'm good with that."

"Of course not. You're the guest. Seriously, this is no big deal for a Wednesday."

"Well, thank you again for inviting me to eat with your family."

"We're glad to have you. Was Chuck able to help you, or did Bryce's email mess up Chuck's computer?"

"Bryce's email caused some problems with the computer—" Sarah started.

Chuck knew the "computer problem" was the Intersect and not his computer, but he thought that he should clarify his computer wasn't broken so wouldn't be borrowing money for a new one. Chuck said, "My computer will be fine. You know I fix computers for a living. I'm sure it will be fine."

Sarah continued, "Chuck was able to show me enough that I'm confident my issue will be resolved. I'm glad this was something he couldn't show me at the store. This way, I got to meet you, and I get a home cooked meal out of the deal."

"Why'd you come here? Why not have Chuck show you on your computer at your place?"

"I actually don't live in California."

"Really? Why did you go to the Burbank Buy More?"

"I'm in town on business and had a phone that kept falling apart. Chuck fixed it in less than ten seconds."

Ellie continued her questions. "So when your business is over, you have to leave? Go back to—"

"DC. My trip is open ended. It depends on how long it takes. Originally, I thought I might be heading back tomorrow, but I talked to my boss, and I'm staying until at least Friday, maybe longer. On the upside, I'm going to dinner with Chuck tomorrow. I'm sure it won't be as good as what you're making, but I'm looking forward to spending more time with this guy." Sarah took Chuck's hand. He gulped, while maintaining a smile. She could tell the smile was forced because he was so obviously nervous, even after what they just did up against the bathroom door.

Devon came over in his workout outfit and said with gusto, "Hi, Sarah! It's awesome you're staying for dinner. Are you two done in the bathroom so I can clean up before we eat?"

Chuck quickly said, "We weren't doing that."

Sarah more calmly answered, "We're done for now. There's always later. The bathroom is all yours." Devon went to the back.

Ellie changed the subject away from what her brother and Sarah may or may not have been doing in the bathroom. "Sarah, what do you do for a job that sends you all the way across the country so you can meet computer repairmen?"

Chuck tried to answer for her, "She's a fixer. No, that doesn't sound good." So much for his attempt at a cover story. He turned to Sarah. "What's a better term for what you do?"

Sarah said, "I solve problems for a large company."

Ellie said, "What's that mean? How did you get to be a 'problem solver?'"

"I started working for them during my breaks when I was still in college, so I've been doing it for a while," Sarah answered.

"You had an internship," Ellie said, trying to put it in terms she understood.

Sarah said, "Not really, but that's close enough." _For government work_, Chuck mentally added.

Ever curious, Ellie asked, "Where do they recruit interns to be 'problem solvers?' Where did you go to college?"

Sarah dryly answered, "Harvard."

"Wait. Harvard? As in Harvard Harvard? I went to UCLA. That's a good school, but Harvard is another whole level. In terms that we think of out here on the West Coast, that's like Stanford. I'm staying out of the argument about my brother's school being the Harvard of the West. With a degree from that school, you could pretty much do anything you want. Going to Harvard means you're not a gold digger, which is probably a good thing. Chuck's a diamond in the rough, but you know he didn't graduate. He's not a billionaire video game designer. What you see is what you get."

"I like what I see." Sarah smiled and bumped her hip to his.

Chuck remembered Sarah said to not to lying about things that didn't need to be secret. It wasn't the type of thing that would blow her cover or even a secret. Anyone could have seen her drive them there, even people at the Buy More Plaza. He said, "Sarah doesn't need to dig for gold. You should see the car she drove here."

Sarah tried to brush it off. "It's a rental."

Chuck didn't let her get away with that excuse. "It's a Porsche. Did you know they rent those?" he asked Ellie.

Not waiting for an answer, Sarah justified, "The company pays my travel expenses. I don't even have a car in DC. I mostly use a company car. Some places I travel, I have to get something that barely runs."

Ellie said, "Wow. I would be scared to drive in a car that nice. I'm a decent driver, but that's because I'm super cautious. That comes from too many shifts covering the OR."

Chuck said, "Scared to drive it? I was scared to _ride_ in it. Sarah sure can handle it, though. She moved it through LA traffic so easily, you'd think she's been driving around here for years. Locals can't get through traffic that well."

"At least our wonderful traffic here won't scare you away from coming back," Ellie joked.

Sarah said, "I graduated from high school around here."

That intrigued Ellie. "Do you have friends in the area?"

"Friends. Definitely not. Yours and Chuck's childhood situation might be worse than mine, but not by much."

"That I don't believe," Ellie said.

"This isn't a competition. My parents divorced when I was eight."

Up to the challenge, Ellie said, "Our dad checked out as a parent when our mom left. I had to do things like balance the checkbook and raise Chuck from when he was nine. At least dad waited long enough to leave so we didn't end up in the foster system."

Sarah raised her eyebrows. "I never said mine was worse. It's close. I'm just saying I understand. Chuck and I both have unconventional childhoods. When my parents split, I left with my dad because he seemed like the fun one. Turns out, he's not a good parent. We moved around a lot, normally on short notice, moving in the middle of the school year. I haven't seen him since shortly after I turned 18. I've barely talked to my mom since then and none at all for almost a decade before that. My only friends are co-workers, and I don't see them on a regular basis. It's been wonderful making friends out here."

"Don't you see your friends all the time at the office?" Ellie asked.

Sarah thought Ellie sure was nosy. This was quite an interrogation from someone not about to resort to torture. She wanted to know everything about the woman that she had caught kissing her brother and passed out on his floor. She seemed nice and protective of Chuck, though, not dangerous. Sarah decided it was time for some mystery. "My degree was in International Relations. I mostly travel to other countries."

"Wow, exciting. What's the best thing you've seen?"

"I have a lot of stamps in my passport, but I don't really see much of the places I go. So far, LA is looking good." She looked straight at Chuck.

Chuck looked down, embarrassed.

After a couple seconds, Sarah and Ellie both burst out laughing. Ellie said to Sarah, "You're doing that on purpose, aren't you?"

Sarah replied, "Yes. He's cute when he's embarrassed. Plus, it's true."

Chuck didn't look up. His face was discovering new shades of red. Sarah and Ellie laughed again.

Ellie said, "It's too bad you are leaving. We've been having fun at Chuck's expense, but when we aren't doing that, I can see this light in his eyes that I haven't seen in years. You're good for him. But I'm assuming too much. With all the traveling you do, you probably have a guy in every port."

"No. I'm not in the Navy. I don't have a guy in any port, or more land-locked in the cities either. I've never run into someone quite like Chuck." Sarah squeezed Chuck's bicep. Chuck face froze once again.

Ellie said, "Please remember that I have to deal with him when you're gone. Don't break him too badly."

Sarah said, "I won't break him. Chuck and I are having dinner tomorrow night. We're having a _real_ date, so I have no intention of breaking him tonight."

Upon seeing Chuck's expression, Sarah and Ellie laughed, yet again. Chuck added a fake laugh.

Dinner was fun for everyone. Sarah went on and on about the food. Ellie brushed it off and said that it was no big deal. Sarah said that sometime she'd have to find out what a "big deal" meant. Devon certified that in his medical opinion, the two people who had earlier collapsed onto the floor seemed "awesome."

With dinner consumed, Sarah tried to help clear the table, but the hostess ordered her to stay seated. Sarah finally said. "I should be going, but thank you for welcoming into your home. This is so much better than room service would have been."

Ever gentlemen, Chuck and Devon both stood as Sarah did. As Sarah turned to the door, Ellie said under her breath. "Chuck, go with her."

Chuck groaned, "You know she heard you. I was going to do that, anyway."

Sarah acknowledged, "I did hear. Come on, Chuck." She extended her hand to him. "Let's go." They walked hand-in-hand out the door, out into the courtyard.

With the apartment door shut, they heard a high-pitched squeal. When the sound died down, Chuck said, "Sorry about that. She's excitable. And thanks for playing it up that we're ah…you know."

"It's fine. Ellie and Devon were great. I wasn't playing anything up, though. We've kissed several times now. Ellie saw us. I hope you've felt what I felt. It's something special. If we didn't have this Intersect thing to deal with—"

"Intersect?"

They stopped by the fountain where Sarah softly spoke. "When I was given this assignment, I was told that's what they called the computer system Bryce destroyed. If we didn't have this Intersect thing to deal with, I'd love to have a real first date with you. But first we do have to deal with the fallout of what Bryce did. I don't know what will happen tomorrow night. I _won't_ let anything bad happen to you. You're too valuable. We've seen that you've retained information from the Intersect. They still have the original intelligence sources, but you're the only person that has the 'intersect' of all of that data in your head. Casey is a patriot. He'll respect a loyal American who we need."

"You saw the Intersect images, too," Chuck said.

"But for some reason I didn't flash. You're special, and I don't only mean in the way you make me feel when you look at me."

"You're special, too."

"I'm better when I'm with you," Sarah said.

They gave each other goofy smiles as part of a mutual admiration society.

Chuck said, "It was amazing how you almost never lied to Ellie and Devon the entire night—at least nothing I'm aware of. They have no idea you're a CIA agent."

"I didn't lie."

"You implied, or exaggerated, there's more between us. You're amazing, and I'm…me"

Sarah's face held a serious expression as she stared at Chuck. "Let me say this so you understand. I don't know what to call whatever that feeling is between us, but I wasn't exaggerating. I don't know how to explain it better than this." She took Chuck's face in her hands and joined their lips.

When they stopped, Sarah said, "Even if we don't have a date tomorrow night, we're having a date _sometime_. There's no way tonight is the last night we're doing that."

"So you didn't lie about anything, as unbelievable as that is to me. I might not believe myself tomorrow when I tell myself that I met such a wonderful woman. Don't be surprised if when I see you tomorrow, I'm surprised you're real."

"Then I'll just have to remind you." Sarah brightened at the idea. She took his hand, and they resumed walking towards the car.

"How do you do that, talk about all of that stuff and not reveal you're a spy?" Chuck asked. "I assume all spies are trained to deceive people for their job. With you being the person tasked with retrieving all of the government's secrets, you must be an amazing spy, but you didn't lie at all." Chuck tapped his head. "I don't know things about you just by trying to think about it, but I now have more access to the CIA files about you. I never flashed in front of Ellie and Devon."

"With a cover, the idea is to keep it as simple as possible without revealing true personal details. The truth is simple and easy to remember. I just controlled the conversation, even with Ellie asking all of those questions. I didn't say things I didn't want to talk about. That's normally easier, but you sister really cares and asked _a lot_ of questions. I said I moved a lot, but I didn't say where. I said I went to high school around here, but there are a lot of schools in Southern California. I said I haven't seen my dad since I was 18. That's true. I didn't say _why_ we haven't seen each other. It's reassuring that you didn't flash on that. Maybe I'll tell you sometime, but not tonight. I said I have little contact with my mom, but I didn't say anything else about her. The fact that I have a mom isn't a secret. Everyone has a mom. The CIA doesn't even know where she is because she was out of my life when they recruited me."

"International Relations at Harvard?" Chuck queried.

"I normally don't talk about that, but I like Ellie, and saw no harm. It's a useful detail. That degree is exotic enough to explain a job where I travel the world, one which would explain why I might have to suddenly leave. I didn't say a degree like that is common for CIA agents."

Chuck wrinkled his forehead and said, "But Bryce was in accounting."

"He relied on me to get us around in other countries."

Chuck let out a single laugh. "How many languages do you know?"

"It depends on if you mean: read, understand, or speak?"

"So what, five for each?"

"Higher."

Chuck raised his eyebrows. "So double that?"

"A lot higher than that. It's not important. We need to talk about tomorrow," Sarah said, stopping in front of her Porsche.

"Right. How are you going to keep me safe?"

"I'll be here before your shift tomorrow morning. When do you go in?"

"I need to be at work by 9:30."

"Then I'll be here at 9 so we'll have plenty of time to do more of this." Sarah grabbed Chuck's tie and pulled him in for another kiss. This one went on for a while, with Sarah pinning Chuck against her car.

When she finally released him, she licked her lips. Chuck acknowledged, "Yes. We need to have more time for that."

Sarah said, "I need to go, or you won't be getting any sleep tonight. Also, I shouldn't show you any more scars or you might flash. Please don't look at anything that might be spy-related so you don't flash without me around to protect you."

"Yes." Chuck nodded and kept nodding as he said, "I like the idea of you being around whenever I might see anything that might make me flash. We don't know what that might be, so best for you to stay around."

"With Casey coming tomorrow, we need a good night's sleep tonight. Until tomorrow morning, Chuck." At first, she gave him a quick kiss. Then she thought better of it and kissed him much longer. After another minute, she said, a little out of breath, "We really do need to stop." She got into the car, tires screeching as she left.

Chuck just stood on the curb for another minute with a smile frozen on his face. It was still on his face when he returned to the apartment. In stunned happiness, Chuck silently walked by Ellie and Devon to his room, oblivious to Ellie's rapid-fire interrogation.

* * *

A/N: Sarah and Chuck can't seem to keep their lips apart. If only Chuck didn't have to work tomorrow and a tank wasn't coming to town.


	5. First Date

_Posted October 30, 2019_

A/N: Sarah didn't complete her mission after all, and got stuck…having a good dinner. Now what?

I'm case you are wondering what happened with Sarah's Intersect, she's not worried. Chuck's Interest is why she gets to stay in town.

* * *

_**September 20, 2007**_

Sarah pulled up to Chuck's apartment complex at 8:59. At precisely 9, she knocked on his door. Two seconds later, she was on top of him on the living room couch, her lips firmly attached to his. After half a minute, Sarah paused and asked, "When are Ellie and Devon getting home?"

Chuck said "After I have to be at work." They resumed kissing.

Ten minutes later, Chuck said, "We should stop and say hello."

Sarah said hi and started to work her way down Chuck's neck.

"I don't want to stop this, but I do have to go to work."

Sarah said, "I drive fast. We don't have to leave for five minutes."

They made the most of their five minutes.

In the car, Chuck said, "I'm not complaining about all of that, but we really should talk more."

Sarah said, "I've figured that out about you: you like to talk. I think we just proved there's other good uses of your mouth. You're right, though. Today is a big day. Did you sleep well? I didn't. I was thinking about you."

"I slept great," Chuck cheerfully said. "My dreams were the best. Then I woke up and was initially disappointed because you weren't around anymore. Then I remembered I'd see you this morning. I'd been waiting at the front door for fifteen minutes when you knocked."

"It would've been nice to come over early, but I talked to Director Graham this morning. As great as whatever this is between us, the only way we can keep doing that is if I keep you safe. Graham said the NSA is blaming the CIA for everything and won't take his calls. Graham was able to send me more information about the man they are sending. His name is John Casey. He's a Marine and is flying into Pendleton late this afternoon. To be honest, I'm a little surprised he didn't fly here yesterday. He was probably waiting for background information to be assembled. People thought you were working with Bryce and might be a threat. Since I worked with Bryce, I didn't wait to try to fix this. That phone has been giving me trouble, so I thought of using it on the flight here. I was still receiving background on you after I walked into the store. I know don't know whether I'll be able to reason with Casey or if I'll have to stop him. Trust me, you have _nothing_ to worry about. I'd say that even if he wasn't getting in the way of a date that really I want to go on with you."

They rode in silence for the next couple minutes. Chuck simply stared at his beautiful driver who effortlessly made it look like it wasn't the tail end of rush hour. He didn't want to look at the road because he knew it would scare him again. He had a much more pleasant view, anyway. Finally he said, "I'm not complaining by any means. I'm trying to understand why you want to keep doing what we did this morning. I can't be _that_ good a kisser. I hadn't kissed a woman in years. It can't just be the 'taste' thing you've mentioned. I normally use peppermint toothpaste and was thinking of changing to spearmint, but you wouldn't have been able to taste that after yesterday's lunch and after dinner last night. And you had to have kissed a lot of guys for your spy work."

Sarah said, "You _do_ taste good. Maybe there's a better word for it, but I don't know how else to describe it. For work, I have kissed marks that I wish I didn't. It's one of the tools I can use to make a mark think he's going to get more than he ever comes close to getting. Some spies I know actually enjoy 'playing with their food,' but I never have. I'm better at covert entry and hand-to-hand combat. Actually, if you hadn't been so helpful yesterday, I probably would have broken into your place and stolen your computer. It turns out you had installed the empty hard drive to fake-out Bryce, so I wouldn't have retrieved the Intersect successfully."

"Thank you for not stealing my computer."

"You're welcome. With you, I don't know how to describe it. I get this feeling deep inside. I didn't know what I was missing."

"I feel the same thing. I didn't know you felt it too. I said I hadn't kissed anyone in years. The last time, Jill, never felt like _that_. Right now, I should be hiding in my room, scared to death about this thing in my head, but instead I'm thankful it brought you into my life."

Chuck took hold of Sarah's right hand and brought it to his lips. They spent the rest of the drive with their hands joined between them. Sarah dropped Chuck off at the front of the Buy More with a minute to spare.

The first half of the day went smoothly. Jeff and Lester were off. It took a while to figure out why everyone was sticking up a hand. They wanted to give Chuck a high-five as they walked by because of how he left the day before.

On one level, Chuck thought it was a little disrespectful. It actually _was_ an offsite computer job, from a certain point of view. Chuck even turned in a signed work order with a real credit card number, which Sarah said was for minor expenses during a mission. He didn't want to know how she got the form. Technically, Chuck _did_ help her with a computer problem. He just couldn't tell anyone the computer was in his head.

While everyone else was congratulatory, Morgan was almost insufferable. Morgan was there when he met Sarah, which he used as justification for getting details about what happened last night. Chuck finally told him Sarah stayed for dinner, slept in _her own_ bed, and the two of them had plans to go out that evening. To say Morgan was impressed would be putting it mildly. Morgan asked if Sarah had any friends that Chuck could hook him up with. Chuck honestly said that Sarah didn't have friends in California other than her new friends: Devon, Ellie, and him. Using that approach on Ellie wouldn't work any better than it did when Morgan took her pillow to prom.

At lunchtime, Chuck gave an excuse to his buddy that he needed to eat out and clear his head. He had been so excited about seeing Sarah again that he had forgotten to pack a lunch. Cutting across the front parking lot to the Wienerlicous, he saw a familiar black sports car in the parking lot. Inside was the gorgeous blonde that he had been thinking about for most of the morning. She saw him, of course, and gave a little flirty wave with her fingers. One thing was certain: hot dogs on sticks wouldn't do. He turned and went to the new deli sandwich place. He had never been there, but he knew sandwiches. He was certain he could pick out something she would like.

About ten minutes later, he knocked on the window of the Porsche he saw earlier. Sarah unlocked, and he sat down in the passenger seat with a bag of sandwiches and two water bottles.

"I hope I didn't startle you with my knock, coming at you from behind."

"Not at all. I watched you from the moment you stepped out of the Buy More and tracked you in and out of Lou's. While you were working, I confirmed Casey is not supposed to be here until tonight, when we'll explain to him what's happened. My assignment was to acquire and protect the Intersect. That's in your head now, so my job is to protect you. That means sitting in this car and keeping an eye on everything around here."

"Must be boring, sitting and watching a parking lot."

"I get enough excitement when a mission calls for it. Stake-outs are an important part of the job, in between the excitement. Staking out your work is a lot better than other things I've done." She looked at the bag in Chuck's lap and the drinks in his hands. "I presume you have something for me."

"Of course. I couldn't have my protector sustaining herself on… What were you going to eat? MREs?"

Sarah wrinkled her nose. "I've had those. No. I don't keep any with me. I figured I'd skip a meal, maybe have a couple mints. I don't know what you've done today, considering the parking lot has been pretty quiet. You've had nine customers all morning. This," she pointed to the food, "makes you my hero." Sarah took the drinks out of his hands, putting them in the cup holders, and leaned across the center console, giving Chuck a thank you on the lips.

After she sat back, Chuck gave her a sandwich: turkey and Gouda on multigrain, with all the fixings. He said, "I hope this is ok. I have a second one that has peanut butter and three kinds of meat, if…" He didn't need to finish as Sarah had already bitten in and was making moans that he was sure would be in his next night's dreams.

Half-way into her meal, Sarah said, "You're lucky you have a place like that to go to all the time. Around the world, I've eaten at some five star restaurants with tiny portions and at some complete dives. I never get good, normal food."

"It opened the beginning of the week. Before today, I hadn't actually been here. You take a number, order at the counter, and they make the sandwich in front of you: kind of like Subway, except for the numbers. It feels less commercialized because it doesn't have pre-printed menu signs. The owner was working. I expect that when word gets out about her, I'm going to have to deal with some guys at the store acting like drooling fools."

"Cute, huh? Do I have competition that has home field advantage and can fill your stomach?"

"She's way too short for me. Some of the guys at work—most of the guys at work—are guided by their hormones. Frankly, if a couple of them who sometimes offend customers stop doing that because their interest is elsewhere, it'll be a nice change. Earlier, Morgan asked me if you have a friend I could set him up with. I shut him down, so he'll go back to pining over my sister."

"Ellie? Your best friend hits on your sister, even though she lives with Devon?"

"It's sort of a thing. Morgan has been that way since junior high, when he grew a beard. She holds him back with rules like, no touching. She's just too nice to the guy who's been my best friend since before our mom left us. Maybe someday he'll get a clue. Maybe he'll find some woman that he doesn't have to look up at and who gives him food. Until then, he's as loyal of a friend as you could find, despite his unrealistic crush.

They continued eating another minute, and Chuck asked, "Does this qualify as a date? I'm asking because Morgan thought we were together enough for him to set me up with a friend of yours, but we hadn't even been on an official date."

"We planned on seeing each other and came here together. You're feeding me. We've kissed. I plan on kissing you again. It's close enough for me to call a date. Is that ok with you?"

"Sure. One date technically isn't 'dating,'" Chuck said.

"I don't know what is going to happen after tonight because of the Intersect in your head. Let's just plan on having another date when we can. Now we can say we're dating because we have plans. Maybe poorly defined plans, but plans. If you have to put a label on it, I dare say we're boyfriend and girlfriend, until we have a better name," Sarah said with a wink. "There's one thing that I'd like to understand, though."

"I'll try. I still can't believe you'd want to date me."

Sarah didn't like that kind of talk. "That's it. We've kissed quite a few times now. It's amazing, don't you agree?"

"I do."

"Yet, each time, you seem surprised."

"Before you, I hadn't kissed anyone in a really long time. I'm both surprised that it's happening and surprised that someone like you wants to kiss me. I'm sorry if it—"

"Stop that. Hear this: I want to keep doing it with you. Get used to it. Stop being surprised."

"I'll try." Chuck hinted with a grin, "More practice might get me used to the idea."

"That, I can do," Sarah affirmed with a nod.

They finished their sandwiches. Chuck apologized, "Sorry I didn't bring dessert. They had 'KIND' energy bars with nuts, honey, and a little chocolate. I've never seen them before, so I passed."

"That's ok. I'm good."

Chuck said, "You're already sweet enough. Sorry, after hearing that out loud, that was corny.'

Sarah didn't seem concerned as she stared at Chuck's mouth and said, "You have a little peanut butter…" She pointed at his mouth. "Here let me get it." She leaned over and licked the corner of his mouth clean. She didn't lean back for a while. When she did, she smacked her own lips. "Still tastes good. How much time do you have for lunch?"

Chuck looked at his watch. "Eight more minutes."

Seven minutes later, they stopped to catch their breaths.

Breathing hard with her forehead against Chuck's, Sarah said, "I have to let you go so I can get into the right mindset for tonight. Ellie said she has a doctor-mode. I'll be in spy-mode. Please don't hold it against me. If everything goes well—_after_ everything goes well—we'll have more time to enjoy whatever this thing is between us." Sarah quickly kissed Chuck again, and pushed him away, towards the opposite door.

Just outside the car, Chuck leaned back in and across the car, giving Sarah another quick kiss. He stood back up, holding the water bottle he had smoothly retrieved when he leaned in. He said, "I think I better re-hydrate. Part of me is terrified about tonight, but a bigger part of me can't wait to see you again. And I should…" He shut the door and left before he could talk himself into blowing off work again.

For the next couple hours at the Nerd Desk, Chuck was on cloud nine. It didn't even bother him when Harry Tang came in to work mid-afternoon through close. Harry was his normal abrasive self, continuously making demeaning comments to Chuck and everyone else. Chuck remained above it, not just literally because of the large height difference, but because after his lunch date, Chuck felt like he was floating above it all, untouchable. If anyone tried to come close, he knew that he had an angel to protect him.

Chuck thought that he should apply for the assistant manager position, because with his new-found confidence, he was certain that he could easily get it. No one liked Harry's abrasiveness. Chuck didn't know what it meant having the Intersect in his head, if he'd be allowed to do something, like be a middle manager at a big box store. Maybe when his brain download was somehow reversed—surely they wouldn't have a way of uploading into the brain without a way to reverse the process—maybe when Sarah left to save the world somewhere else, _then_ he'd improve his job situation. In the meantime, he was just going to trust the beautiful spy—his girlfriend—and spend whatever time he could with her.

Chuck looked up from the pile of offsite install forms he was reviewing to see a vision. The vision wasn't happy. Sarah had another man by the arm. The man had red hair and stubble, and he had a black leather jacket folded over his joined hands. She forced him Chuck's way. That's when the flash hit him.

Morgan patted Chuck on the back. "I'm sorry, man. She's already moving on, and you're freaking out. Does she think it's going to be easier, dumping you in a public place, like this? At your place of work? That's too humiliating. I'll take care of this." Morgan went into the main aisle, a few feet in front of the Nerd Herd desk to stand in Sarah's path.

Sarah spoke before Morgan could, her face stern. "Step aside, Morgan. I need to talk to Chuck."

"You 'need to talk.' Those words aren't good. You're making a mistake. I won't let you make a fool of my friend because you're with this other guy now."

Sarah said, "I'm _not_ with this guy. I don't have time for this. I need to talk to Chuck so we can deal with this before I pick him up for our date tonight." Sarah walked past Morgan, without waiting for a response, yanking the scary looking man who looked down and still didn't say anything. He looked broken.

When Sarah reached the desk, Chuck asked, "How did you.… Do you know who that is?"

"Yes," Sarah answered

"Have you seen him before, or something?"

"No. I think it was…" Sarah hesitated to say it out loud.

"You, too?" Chuck said in awe.

"Apparently so. We need to go someplace more private to talk."

Chuck said. "Follow me." When they reached a secluded area of Appliances, Sarah slugged the man hard in the gut, pushed him into a large freeze chest, and shut the lid.

Chuck quietly said, "You flashed, too? That's amazing. Where did you find him?"

"About a half hour ago, I saw him going into the Large Mart. I apprehend him when he came out. So far, my threat of dismemberment has kept him silent."

"He believed you?"

"I was convincing. I told him if he made a sound, he'd lose one of his five limbs." Sarah smirked, and Chuck's eyes became circles.

Sarah continued, "The truth is, I could've shot him and left the body in the ally, and we'd still be able to do what we're going to do tonight. That wouldn't be too harsh. From the flash, I know what he's done in the past. His only chance of surviving the year is to cooperate or to hope American and European authorities argue over who gets to put him on trial first. We're lucky I caught him getting supplies he needs for tonight. That means the bomb he's making isn't ready. I was able to use his key fob to locate his car. Inside, I found an itinerary for a talk at a hotel downtown which had an important speaker. I won't say his name, in case you might flash. He was the target. The speaker's security team has been alerted. I called this in to DHS, and they're using traffic camera logs to find out where his car has been."

"What's this mean for tonight?"

Sarah grabbed both of Chuck's hands and squeezed. "The truth is, this helps our case tonight. However, we can't turn him over to local authorities. We need to store this guy someplace until your shift is done." Sarah looked to the freezer chest where she had dumped him.

"No," Chuck said. "Customers come back here more on weekends than the middle of the day on weekdays, but someone could come back here and find him. What about a storage closet?"

"No. Even tied up, we're not leaving a bomber in a room with a bunch of chemicals that shouldn't be mixed. No place else?"

Chuck shrugged. "Sorry. Even the 'private' places are frequented by people who work here to hide from doing more work."

"I wasn't too hopeful. I just had to share this important development with you."

"You bet it's important. We're both human Intersects." He gave her a short kiss.

Sarah made a little noise that indicated she liked that, and she asked, "How can we get out of here without drawing too much attention? It was bad enough having Morgan think I was dumping you."

They pulled out the captive, who looked demoralized and broken. Chuck led them through the back, around the building, and out front to Sarah's car. Sarah popped open the trunk and spoke to the bomber. "Are you going to climb into the truck or do I have to detach the patellas from your knees?" Somehow, a knife had appeared in her hand.

The main's eyes went wide. "I'll go," he said in a raspy voice "Just please don't hurt me again." With the coat removed from over his hands, Chuck saw he was handcuffed and his hands were fully wrapped in gauze. After he got in the trunk. Sarah pulled a syringe from her inside coat pocket, and stuck the man in the neck, tranquilizing him.

Shutting the trunk, Chuck said, "You flashed. While that is amazing, I want to know what you did to him to make him follow you around, keeping his mouth shut. That's just as amazing, how you converted a terrorist to an obedient dog."

"You know I'm not a nice person."

Chuck disagreed, "You're a wonderful person."

"You know I fight bad people. The scar you saw was out of the ordinary because I was actually stabbed. Today, I was careful because while I could blow cover to take him down, I didn't want him to make a bloody mess of the trunk of a car I have to return. I dislocated both of his arms broke several fingers. I would've gone inside the store to tell you sooner, but I had to use the kit I had put in my car to splint his fingers and wrap his hands."

"He was quiet the whole time?"

"It hurts for him to talk. He's going to have a bruise where I hit his voice box. His stubble hides it enough for now."

"Are _you_ ok?"

"I'm fine. He didn't touch me." Sarah gave Chuck peck.

"Are you ok with having the Intersect?" he asked.

"Yes. At least we know I have at least part of it, too. You're not alone. We're in this together. We don't know whether I didn't flash before because I already knew about my scar or because I didn't retain as much as you did. Either way, you're still a vital repository of our national secrets."

"What now?"

"We're going to Pendleton to meet Agent Casey when he lands. We'll turn over this guy to base security. Casey should be more open to listening to us having just stopped a terrorist attack and having captured the terrorist, someone we caught because of an Intersect flash. You go in and finish your shift. I'll come get you when it's time."

Sarah pulled his tie so she could hold him for yet another kiss.

When Chuck reentered the store with a smile on his face, Morgan darted up to him and asked, "You went back there. Why were you out that way? What happened?"

"It's good. That was just someone from her job who cheated her company, and Sarah caught him. That wasn't even why she was sent out to LA. She ran into him by coincidence. She wanted to reassure me that things are ok. It's changed our plans a little, but she's still picking me up after my shift."

"She's so bad-ass. Does she need to take him to the police or something?" Morgan asked.

"It complicated, so I'll say 'or something.'"

Morgan wrinkled his forehead. "But you are still going on a date?'

"Yeah," Chuck breathlessly said.

Morgan turned and called out across the store, "Chuck's still going on a date with her."

Several people in the store applauded. Most were his co-workers, but Chuck noticed one was a customer. It was embarrassing that he and Sarah had caught the attention of so many people earlier, when they thought he was getting dumped. He'd only been dating her for a few hours, based on how they'd chosen to define it.

Chuck reached the end of his shift without anything interesting happening. Precisely at 5:30, the end of the shift, Sarah walked into the store. Over the past day, Chuck had experienced two things he never thought he'd feel. One was the rapid rush of information that came with a flash. The other was the feeling of the whole world brightening when Sarah walked into view.

Chuck and Sarah's eyes remained focused on each other, and Chuck once again heard the sound of applause. This time it was started by the man next to him. Without turning, Chuck said to his friend, "Morgan, don't." Morgan complied.

Sarah took Chuck's hand, and the two of them walked out the front.

* * *

A/N: Multiple people are flashing, but not everyone is. If you want a story will Jeff Barnes flashing (and not being lost), read "Chuck vs the Collision." If you don't care who flashes and just want a good story full of Charah fluff, read it anyway because David's stories always deliver the fluff. If you don't like fluff, what's wrong with you? (I could recommend some good angst stories to you, but I'd rather not be mean. There are many others that have a good, slow relationship development. They're good, too.) At the moment, that story is incomplete, but all of his stuff is finished eventually so don't worry about it and enjoy.

Sarah calls it taste. We all know what it is, even if they haven't figured out the word for it. It's obvious.


	6. Standing in Front of a Tank

_Posted October 31, 2019_

A/N: Casey's coming.

Trick or treat! Here's your treat.

* * *

Casey walked down the narrow hall of the visitor building at Camp Pendleton. When he boarded a plane a few hours ago, he thought he'd be tracking down some loser, Charles Bartowski, who was working with a CIA traitor who had destroyed an NSA facility and killed someone while trying to escape. The only good thing about that idiot was that he was dead. Casey had personally seen to that by shooting him when the CIA scum was trying to flee.

About a half hour before landing, he received a call from his superior, General Beckman. She told him that Bryce Larkin's old female CIA partner had gotten to Bartowski first, and there was an unexpected development with the Intersect. She wasn't sure what to believe from what the CIA director told her. She wouldn't even have taken his call, but this afternoon, the CIA agent who he had dispatched to Los Angeles prevented an assassination attempt on NATO General Stanfield. Not only did she capture the bomber and turn him in to the authorities at Camp Pendleton, she brought the scumbag who was friends with Larkin. The _two_ of them were waiting to talk to him. At least that made finding him easier.

Beckman said to keep an open mind. She said that in her experience, sometimes the CIA had been an invaluable tool in the fight against enemies of the United States, but sometimes you have to watch your back. DHS had tracked the would-be assassin's car back to his hide-out and found a large amount of C-4 and a mostly complete device that would have killed dozens. That's the low estimate, assuming the downtown hotel high-rise remained standing. Casey didn't like playing nice, but preventing an attack like that in downtown Los Angeles earned a few minutes of civility.

He nodded to the guard at the door of the small room where Agent Walker and Charles Bartowski were waiting. When he went inside, it was worse than he had expected. He had thought Walker would be sticking up for her dead boyfriend. Instead, she had her hand firmly clasped to Bartowski's, predominantly on the table in front of them where they were sitting. Bartowski, in his white button-down, short sleeve shirt and grey tie, looked like he was almost sweating. Walker fixed the more experienced agent with an icy stare. It was impressive. He wasn't aware of anything that could rattle him, but her look was close.

"Walker. Bartowski."

Both of them seemed to have a seizure at the same time. He had a fleeting thought it might be because he caught them playing patty-cake on a military base, but that was brushed away because the reaction was unlike any he'd ever seen. First, they went sort of cross-eyed. Then, they blinked rapidly and sort of rattled their heads. Then it was over. The didn't withdraw their hands in shame. If anything, they clutched their fingers tighter.

"What's going on?" he demanded.

Bartowski started, "Your uniform. Your colors—"

"Chuck, I got this," the woman silenced him. "Agent Casey, we'll explain," the CIA agent said. The man stayed quiet. He looked even more nervous.

Why would it matter that Casey wore his uniform when he was traveling cross-country to a Marine base? Casey couldn't conceive of a reason his uniform would garner such a reaction. "When we're at a place like this, I'm Major Casey." Walker didn't seem bothered by the correction. "Thank you for what you did today." Addressing the CIA skirt, he added, "Thank you for acquiring Larkin's co-conspirator and handing him over to us."

"That's not what I'm doing. There has been an unexpected development. We're here as a courtesy. If you showed up at Chuck's home or somewhere else, I wouldn't be so nice. After we talk, Chuck and I are leaving. This delayed our date."

That wasn't what Casey would call friendly. "I don't care if you were once knocking boots with Larkin and are now doing it with this guy, but he's not going anywhere."

"Yes, we both leaving after we are done here. Chuck's under my protection. _Officially_. That's right. He's under the official protection of the CIA. If you do anything to harm or obstruct him, you'll create a huge inter-agency fight—one you'll lose. The President is the son of a former CIA director, and we just stopped a terrorist attack that would have killed who knows how many. Also, if you don't realize we're on the same team and cause problems anyway, _I_ won't be happy. You would regret that. I don't plan on spending another night away from him like I did last night."

"Just because you're Graham's wild card enforcer doesn't give you the right to protect your salami."

Walker narrowed her eyes, as if she could get less friendly. "If that's some euphemism for something we haven't even done yet, you need to stop and listen. Director Graham spent all last night and half of today trying to get you to stand down. He even tried contacting Chuck's congressman."

Casey scoffed, "Like that liberal would ever help. He's on the Judiciary committee anyway, so he doesn't have clearance to know about what Larkin did. Go ahead and tell me why you think Bartowski isn't a traitor who received stolen intelligence from another murderous traitor, one who happened to be your partner."

Walker said, "I came here yesterday afternoon and approached Chuck at his place of work. He already knew I'm a CIA agent. He had never heard of the Intersect. Before this week, Bryce hasn't talked to him for over 5 years, but he called Chuck to ask him to hold some stolen intelligence. Bryce monumentally screwed Chuck over when they were seniors a Stanford, framing Chuck for cheating. This took place when Bryce was already in the CIA. The class was taught by a professor who recruits students for the CIA. It was a set-up."

"That doesn't mean he didn't cheat," Casey pointed out.

"If you'd known Chuck for five minutes, you'd know that's not possible. I knew Bryce. Yes, we were involved. But I didn't trust him. He always embellished his role in the reports of missions we did together. Even after what happened in college, Bryce was arrogant enough to think that Chuck would cooperate with treason for an old friend," Walker said.

"If I hadn't shot him, he probably would have."

"Chuck is smarter than that. He removed the hard drive from his computer, replacing it with a cloned one that didn't have the email. The pristine drive was for Bryce. Chuck didn't want to anger an armed CIA agent who was planning on coming to his home. Bryce wouldn't be the wiser until it was too late. We'd be after him. If he sold an empty hard drive to bad guys, they'd go after him. You got to him first."

"Nice story. How do you know it's true?" Casey said, still not believing it.

"Chuck was very up front with me. He told me how he didn't trust Bryce. We went to his apartment, and he gave me the hard drive with the Intersect."

Casey scoffed. A hard drive would have been confiscated at the base's gate when they arrived. They didn't bring the Intersect with them. "This sounds like an elaborate hoax."

"The Director insisted I verify the hard drive I was getting wasn't the fake one he was going to give to Bryce. Chuck loaded the email attachment. That's when things went sideways," the CIA agent said.

"He lied after all."

"No," Walker said. "The attachment was password-protected. It wasn't a normal password that one of the government's supercomputers could crack in a few hours. It was a riddle that required a sentence. I don't know of any password cracking programs that work that way. The riddle itself was something only Chuck would know."

Bartowski finally spoke again, "Technically, one of the other Stanford students who played the game might know it. Though, I seriously doubt they would remember that the weapon to kill the 'terrible troll' was a 'nasty knife.' It was years ago. Bryce and I designed the game, so we're the only people likely to remember. Who knows what would have happened if I mis-remembered."

Casey said, "I presume you got in. So what's the problem? Where do we have to go for the Intersect?"

"Nowhere," Walker said. "After getting the password, the email displayed a rapid series of images. Chuck and I both saw it. Afterwards, we both passed out. When we woke, the email had secure-deleted itself."

Casey knew things were never easy. He said, "The Intersect is destroyed. This still sounds like a ruse, with both of you in on it."

Walker said, "The Intersect is not gone. The images we saw were filled with subliminal information, encoded Intersect data."

_Ah, so that was the ruse._ "Are you trying to tell me you to have all of the secrets in your heads?"

"Yes. We both are human Intersects," Walker said.

"I didn't know it could do that. Sounds like magic."

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," the geek said.

With a blank expression, Casey stared at the man.

He clarified, "Arthur C. Clarke. _2001_."

That movie was well known enough that Casey knew it. Some space movie with apes, but no Charlton Heston. Boring. Maybe it was a book too. That sounded familiar. In his mind, both were a waste of time. Casey corrected his previous statement. "Sounds like science fiction.

"It's fact," Walker said. "Hard as it is for you to believe, you've seen it yourself."

"Sure. Prove to me your heads hold all of the nation's secrets. Where was my first sniper mission after being assigned to the NSA?"

The computer geek shrugged. Walker said, "It doesn't work that way. We can't recall any fact on demand. Instead, when we see certain things, there's a…"

"Flash," her boy toy filled in.

"There's a 'flash,' where we suddenly know things. That's how I identified a bomber as he walked into a Large Mart this afternoon. We both flashed when you walked into the room."

"That's what that was? I thought one of you might throw up, swallow a tongue, or something. What did you supposedly 'flash' on?"

Walker said, "I don't know if we flashed the same thing. Chuck did you see that ribbon on the third row."

"Yes. It's for being a significant time in Costa Gravas. Also the one directly below it."

"For Iran," she said.

"I assume Iran was for a secret mission," Bartowski said. "I guess they both were, because I don't think we have a base either place. As far as I know, they don't like us."

"It wasn't from a tour. It's from the Major spending a lot of time behind a wall," Walker said.

Bartowski was surprised. "That was real? That was in my flash, but it seemed far-fetched to me, so I thought the Intersect must have misinterpreted that. He just stayed there?" The geek looked at the NSA agent. "That must have been horrible. I don't understand how this spy stuff works. Maybe you guys do that sort of thing all the time. I figured there was no way someone could be there for that long without going someplace secure and sleeping in a bed. That's dedication. Thank you for your service."

After the commentary, Walker added, "It was a long time. Those ribbons, Costa Gravas and Iran, must be highly classified, but they were in the Intersect."

Casey couldn't believe what he had just heard. Their meanings _were_ classified. The only record of what they had just talked about should be nowhere but his unredacted personal record. He thought for a few seconds, then finally said, "That was impressive. We're fortunate there are two of you. We can put Bartowski in a psych tank, someplace secure, so he doesn't tell anyone anything he shouldn't." Looking at the CIA agent, he said, "I'm sure our bosses will want you in the field."

The little color in Bartowski's face drained away. The blonde agent firmly said, "No. We don't know how this thing in our heads works. Chuck was kicked out of college for acing a test with a bonus section on subliminal images. Today, I flashed on the bomber and you, but last night, he flashed on something from my record and I didn't. We don't know enough about how the Intersect works in the brain to know why. It might be because I already know what I did. It might be because Chuck retained things that I didn't. We can't lock away a loyal American citizen someplace as a lab rat, where he won't flash in ways that could help us, when we don't know anything."

Casey said, "The secrets his head holds weren't meant to be known by a civilian. It's too risky. The NSA will take him off your hands for his safety. He can be our asset."

"No!" Casey was getting tired of nos from the CIA. Walker continued, "Chuck is with me. I said earlier he's under my protection. What Chuck did _before_ he downloaded the Intersect demonstrated an invaluable skill. He's so good, the CIA would like to recruit him. I've received have an offer that I was holding off on relaying until we had this conversation. I haven't forwarded it on because the CIA is willing to share him with the NSA as a human Intersect. If you want to force the issue, the offer will immediately take effect. One word from Chuck, and you'd have to stay away from a CIA employee."

Casey couldn't believe the gall of a threat to him from a CIA agent. On a Marine base. "You're only getting out of here if I say so. There's two of you. That means I keep him, and we lock you away as too much of a wild card to control."

Walker's voice was deadly serious. "You act as if I can't take us out of here whenever I'm convinced this is not a useful conversation."

"You're in the middle of one of the country's largest Marine bases."

"That means there's a lot of weapons around."

Casey laughed that off. "But you don't have one now."

"I have a pen and a Sharpie, which I earlier removed from Chuck's pocket protector. That one sharp instrument for you and one for the guard out in the hall. This wouldn't be the first time I've eliminated armed soldiers on a 'secure' military base. Chuck, last night you flashed on a knife fight in Pakistan."

"Right."

"How many people did I kill at that Taliban base?"

"I don't know. Do you know?"

"Actually, I wasn't worried about counting."

"I just know your report said between twenty and thirty. You were rescuing someone…Carina Miller?"

Casey swore under his breath.

The CIA blonde made a closed mouth smile and slowly turned to face him. "Where do you know Carina from?"

He admitted, "Our paths crossed once in Prague."

"Prague." Walker spit out a laugh. "Prague. You're him. Carina and I were on the same team at the time. I heard the story." She laughed some more.

"What happened?" Bartowski asked. He tapped his head. "It didn't make it into the Intersect."

Walker tried to compose herself. "It never made it into a report. Carina kisses and tells, but she doesn't write down parts of her exploits for the government to read. There was no kissing that time." The CIA agent's voice became much more serious. "I'm sure if an NSA agent _unsuccessfully_ tried to detain two CIA employees who had just that day saved countless lives, there would be a report. If the NSA were to try to abduct two CIA employees, the NSA would suddenly find itself completely cut off from all CIA capabilities around the world. You don't want to pull that trigger." Her voice switched to almost sweet. "The CIA would like to play nice. Joint project. Chuck is an independent contractor working for both the CIA and the NSA. I just continue providing close protection."

Casey wasn't sure if it was worth it, but he couldn't imagine a random civilian being worth creating a FUBAR situation, even with a supercomputer in his head, especially when he was willing to cooperate. "Fine, what did the untrained, walking computer do _before_ he downloaded the Intersect?"

"Chuck, tell him," Walker said.

The electronics store jockey said to the woman still holding his hand, "I know it's not the type of thing people not in the CIA should do, but you were there and I just placed a call."

Casey didn't see what the big deal was. "A call?"

The CIA agent nodded, encouraging her boyfriend to continue. He said, "I hacked into the CIA directory and back-traced it to an electronic database that has Sarah's digital fingerprint. I found the video call number of her boss and placed a call, indicating it was her, even though we were on my home computer. I thought he'd be more likely to answer it from an agent, instead of a civilian the CIA didn't trust."

Walker added, "He encrypted the channel, too, all from his home PC. After the call ended, the Director contacted cyber security to check what he did. They have a record of the duration of the call, but they didn't know the content or the origin. Would you like a demonstration with the computers here at base?"

The skinny man cut off the suggestion. "Maybe I shouldn't. I'd rather play tic-tac-toe." He was met with two blank stares. "I figure one of these machines might be connected to the national missile launch system, and I don't want to play a game of thermonuclear war."

Casey growled at the implication.

"I'm saying I _don't_ want to get into a military system by accident. It's just a movie." The stares remained blank. "_War Games_? Matthew Broderick?"

Casey said, "That's the guy who was in the civil war movie _Glory_."

"_War Games_ was one of his movies from when he was younger," Bartowski said.

"I read up about the guy hoping he was in other good war movies. Turns out he's best known for being a loser who ditched school for a day to go to Chicago."

"Different movie, but _Glory_ and _Ferris Bueller's Day Off_ are great, too. He's also won a couple Tonys. Tic-tac-toe was featured in the movie _War Games_, which was about hacking the network that controls our nuclear missiles. I'm just saying the CIA computer system is harmless compared to one that can cause missiles to launch that would devastate the planet."

"That's an isolated system." Casey decided a demo wasn't worth talking about this. Anyone who would go off on a tangent about movies to _avoid_ getting access to military computers had to be harmless. And he did witness a 'flash.' "Fine. I'll call this in. I'll let you know when you can go."

Walker said, "Chuck and I aren't waiting. We're going now. After our bosses come to an agreement, the three of us will have a meeting in Burbank tomorrow about how to proceed."

The woman got up, still holding the hand of the other human Intersect. Before they could leave, Casey asked them one more question. "Did the Intersect make you two hormonal or something?"

Bartowski was embarrassed at the implication. Walker wasn't. "This," she held up their joined hands, "started before we saw the Intersect images. Chuck's mine. You find your own nerd to kiss."

The CIA agent pulled her boyfriend out of the room before Casey could quip back, which was just as well because he wasn't sure what to say to that.

* * *

With the day's mission object successfully behind then, Chuck and Sarah remained quiet for a while. Flying up the 5 from Pendleton toward Los Angeles, Chuck broke the silence. "You were amazing. It was like the immovable object came in and you convinced him to move anyway. I'm so lucky you're on my side. I'm even more excited that you're staying around. I hope you'll be around for a while."

"We're all on the same side, even Agent Casey. The CIA doesn't work domestically, but if we work together, I can stay with you for a long time."

"That bluff about the job was incredible."

"That wasn't a bluff. I talked to Graham on my cell while you were working. The preferred idea is the one we're going with: both agencies work with the two Human Intersects. The backup plan was you become a CIA analyst, specializing in cyber security. I assume you could do that from here. I'd take a local desk job to serve as a liaison to the other human Intersect. We couldn't operate in the US, so I don't know how that would work. With my Intersect, I shouldn't be going into the field on foreign soil until they have a better understanding of how this thing in our heads works. For either option, I wasn't going anywhere away from you."

"I love that in both plans, you're with me."

Sarah nodded and smiled. A few minutes later, Sarah asked, "Where are we going?"

"We're getting back a little late for dinner and dancing. We'll have to do that on our next date. If that kind of thing is ok. What kind of music do you like?"

"Music is not really my thing, but dancing with you, spending the night rubbing our bodies together, sounds fantastic. What should we do tonight?"

"Cheeseburgers at In-N-Out?" Chuck suggested.

"I've heard good things about that place," Sarah said. "I'll get mine with extra pickles."

Chuck was right. They were getting back a little late for dinner _and_ dancing, but they weren't getting back_ that_ late considering the speeds Sarah was driving.

After eating messy cheeseburgers, they headed to the beach. The two of them sat snuggled together all night, watching the tide. Sarah said they should do that again.

When Sarah dropped Chuck off at work the next morning, she said she'd come in to get him after work. "I hope you'll survive eating lunch without me today. I know I'm going to miss spending lunch with you, but I have to check out of my hotel."

"I'll be fine. Morgan and I will get corn dogs," Chuck said, causing Sarah to wrinkled her nose. Chuck suggested, "If you need a place to sleep—"

Sarah cut off the question with a kiss, wrapping her arms completely around Chuck. Chuck was a little late getting in to work that morning.

* * *

A/N: That's not quite it. This was originally going to be the end, but from PM'ing with Marc Vun Kannon after chapter 1, the idea for an epilogue of sorts was formed. Without knowing what I was editing in chapter 2, the chapter in which both Chuck and Sarah get the Intersect, he told me about an idea of Intersect partners developing an intense working relationship. My idea is scaled back a bit, because in this story, Chuck and Sarah can't keep their hands off each other and don't know how to go slow.

So, that's it for the first day and a half.

The congressman? Weird coincidence. He was on that different committee in 2007. I'm not making a political statement either way. I just thought it was ironic, and Casey wouldn't like him without knowing anything about him because he has a D by his name.


	7. Nibbling

_Posted November 1, 2019_

A/N: Early on, the team always had missions after Chuck saw random things. If Chuck and Sarah each saw different random things, they'd have different random missions in the middle of canon inevitabilities. Starting off, Sarah would flash on Zarnow as a traitor before Chuck underwent testing at the Buy More. No dinner magic trick and no helicopter. Sarah would call Casey on the tango idea, then would teach Chuck herself. Whether Sarah was in a towels like Devon is up to your imagination. I'm not going to worry about big Sizzling Shrimp differences. The spastic colon excuse wouldn't work because Sarah would be living with Chuck and the doctors by then. I'm thinking there would be a make-up Evening of Morgan. This is the next day.

* * *

_**October 24, 2007**_

"Everything's clear," Casey said into comms. In place at the security front desk desk of the downtown office building reporting the lack of activity. He knew Sarah was advancing down the hall of the 32nd floor, even though the monitor in front of him showed nothing. A tiny part of him hated when Chuck's hacked video loop worked so well because Sarah would go on and on about it, normally while doing things like playing kissy face with him before as they were waiting to have a video call to complete their post-mission report.

"Uh oh. Sarah, we have to change the subject, now that we have someone listening," Chuck said, from his position in the back of the spy van in the parking garage.

Sarah innocently asked on the radio channel, "You mean I we can't talk about what we did last night, or how we are going to celebrate a successful mission?"

Casey said in a disgusted tone, "Please don't." He really wished they would quit.

Sarah sassed back, "What's your problem?"

"I didn't sleep well. It was noisy. Just because Doctor Ken and Doctor Barbie were working doesn't mean your neighbor couldn't hear you."

Sarah admonished Chuck, "I told you we were too loud. It had to be you. Spies do it silently."

"Could you stop before my ears start bleeding, again?" Casey painfully said.

"Buck up, Marine. We're just talking. We'll be quieter for tonight's encore," Sarah promised.

"Maybe you should stay in a hotel room." Casey suggested. "Isn't the CIA paying you a stipend?"

"That place was really green," Sarah said with derision.

Casey didn't think that was worse than her current situation. "Your room is like a geek threw up on the walls."

"Isn't it clear to you by now that I like my nerd the way he is? I know as a No Secrets Agency agent, you really want to know what happens in there. Sorry, you don't get video. If we're loud, it's to compensate for the lack of microphones," Sarah teased.

"I'll manage. Don't feel you have to do me any favors," Casey said.

Chuck said something that was related to the mission. "I'm past the door." The door by Sarah clicked as Chuck remotely unlocked its electronic lock. Then he went back off-mission. "Do you need anything, Casey? What's the score of the game?" Casey grunted in response.

Sarah opened the door and entered the office, which was her destination for the mission. Sarah was to download files from the computer of this financier who had been laundering money for the Triad, according to the Intersect. So far, everything had gone smoothly. Chuck had looped the cameras. Casey had taken out security at the front desk. Chuck got her past the door faster than she would have thought possible, even if she brought a hand-held electronic device herself. The plan was for her to download some hopefully incriminating files, which would let them trace the money to various criminal organizations. They'd be home early for some of that activity which Sarah had promised Casey would be quieter.

Chuck asked, "Casey, how did you take out the guard on duty at the front desk? Kareem to Worthy to AC to Magic, back to Worthy?" Casey grunted again.

Sarah didn't know that distraction technique. "What's that mean?"

Casey answered, "It was the distraction the terrorist/thieves used in _Die_ _Hard_ before they shot the security guard at the front desk of an LA office high-rise."

Sarah said, "I don't know what Chuck is talking about most of the time when he goes into movies tangents with Morgan. Why do you know about that movie?"

"That one actually isn't too bad," Casey said. "It has Bruce Willis, gunplay and explosions, and it makes fun of the FBI. I knew what he meant because Chuck has been needling me about it since he heard where we were going. It's R rated, so he had Lester put up some illegal, but censored version on the TVs today at work."

Chuck added, "Don't forget it's the greatest Christmas movie ever! Sarah, expect to be heart-warmed when we watch it for Christmas, drinking eggnog."

Sarah asked, "Will there be snuggling?"

"Of course."

"G—," she started, but comms suddenly when silent. After a few seconds, Sarah said, "We have a problem. I flashed."

Casey groaned and said, "Not you, too. I thought you weren't flashing on this one, Walker. We're here because of someone _Chuck_ flashed on when you two were having dinner with the bearded gnome at Bamboo Dragon last night."

"I guess I didn't get a good look last night. I flashed now. It turns out this painting in his office is stolen. If we leave it here, it could me 'misplaced.' I don't have a tube to secure it in. It'd be better to carry out the entire frame, but that's bulky, and I'd stick out if anyone saw me."

Chuck said, "Sarah, you know you're kind of noticeable, anyway, to any man with a pulse. I'll pick you up at the front door."

"No! You stay where you are."

"I promise I'll stay in the van. I'll just drive it out of the garage."

Casey said, "Yes. Please come quickly. The sooner we get of here, the sooner I stop having to listen to you two flirt."

"And the sooner you can listen to us—," Sarah started.

"Ugh." Casey complained. "The sooner you two get done so I can sleep. How long until we're done here?"

Chuck chimed in, "Do you need my help from here?"

Sarah said, "No, I've already bypassed the alarms and have the painting resting up against the desk, by the computer. No nibbling necessary."

"Could you please quit with the sexual euphemisms?"

Sarah said back to Casey, "That wasn't what I was talking about. My name for the magic he does with computers just happens to be the same as what I call some of the magic he does in the bedroom."

Casey let out a pained noise. "I don't need to know more. Just please hurry."

"I'm heading out now," Sarah said. "I pulled the entire hard drive because with the painting gone, there's no reason to hide the fact we've been here. The elevator is bringing me down now. Chuck, with all of this talk about flashing, I can't wait to get home to do some more."

Casey lamented, "I really wish I never learned what that meant."

Sarah laughed, "Your job is to help with all of our flashes. We just make it so you don't have to do it every time."

"That's a different kind of flash."

"Chuck actually Intersect-flashed on a couple scars the first time."

Casey groaned again.

Chuck said, "I'm out front. Please stop torturing him so much. When he's angry—when he's angrier than usual—he takes it out on me at the Buy More. He won't mess with you."

"He shouldn't mess with you either. If you don't like it, I don't like it."

Casey said, "Fine. Take away my fun."

* * *

A/N: That's all this time. Really.

I hope you've enjoyed this view of how an Intersect couple would be inseparable, bringing their own skills to make a powerful team.

What's next? I think Chuck would be reluctant about getting rid of the Intersect, leaving Sarah the only one. People at the Buy More probably have seen Sarah's Porsche, so a cover job like the one in "The Bartowskis vs the Spy World" might make more sense.

(Later A/N insert: I had some other ideas listed, but I went a slower dual Intersect route with "Chuck & Sarah vs Trust.")

Back when the show was on the air, I never did (non-crossover) stories that were AUs when I wrote them. The show was still coming up with its own twists, and there were a lot of other good AUs out there. A few months ago when rewatching season 1, ideas started flowing. Now I've done several stories in four alternate universes. Here's how I keep them straight in my head:

\- "Chuck vs His Former Handler" and "Chuck & His Roommate vs the Next Mission" - post 1.04-1.13 and 2.01-2.08. (post-Wookiee through the Jill arc) 0 Intersects.

\- "Chuck vs the Nemesis's Ex" and "The Bartowskis vs the Spy World" - pre-series-1.01 and 1.01-1.10 (Nemesis). 1 Intersect. Chuck and Sarah waste no time and get married, _before_ Chuck downloads the Intersect.

\- "Chuck & Sarah vs the Email" - 1.0.1+. 2 Intersects.

\- "Chuck & Sarah vs Trust" - 1.0.1-Christmas, though this is very different after the parallel events for 1.08. This story line will probably be continued.

I known the sequel titles might be considered minor spoilers, but saying so takes the position that Chuck and Sarah getting together in some way is a spoiler. I don't like putting off the inevitable. (I did all of my fanfic writing post-canon Charah. The spoiler of the episode title "Chuck vs the Honeymooners" got me through the back half of the show's "misery arc." In my head, they were fated, even when things were at their worst.)

I have a fourth AU story, a two-shot taking place at the tail end of Suburbs and the first couple minutes of Beefcake, before the mission: "Sarah vs Her Best Friend."

Oh, another idea for the start of a title: "The Piranha & the GBSM vs All Comers." I won't write that one because I don't have a plot idea. The title idea is cool.


End file.
